The Legend of Serendipity, Part 2

And so, began my career as a teacher. I never did things “academically” and I usually teach the way I learned things. I learned photography by picking up a camera and not by reading a book. Everything I knew was practical knowledge.

This was how things went. Not only did I teach photography but also how to tell stories with both photographs and words so informally, I was also teaching my students how to effectively use English as a means of telling a story.

And boy, was their English bad!

I don’t mean to deride my students. I fault the system for what it was and it was a disaster! Apparently, teachers obligated students to refer to books and follow what they were taught almost like it was a religion. And being a Catholic institution, religion was the core of their being.

I couldn’t believe how some people could go to church every single day of the week and including Sundays. There was the mandatory prayer before every class that I naturally dispensed with and devoted as much time as I could on my subject rather than waste five minutes on the Rosary or whatnot.

I even skipped roll call and instead, passed around a sheet of paper which they filled out with their names and signatures as proof of their attendance.

That very first day, a student asked me about a reference book or if I required it. The school administration demanded that I come up with a syllabus. I just didn’t do things that way. What I did was hand the students my camera and bought film for them to shoot. After which, I took the spent rolls and took them to Quiapo myself for processing which I paid for with my own money.

Somehow, my system worked and I was more than relieved to see that my students were actually learning something.

At 27 years old, I looked at least ten years younger and some of my students were making passes at me verbally or through some form of flirtation. I expected that. It was human nature and it was also for the same reason that I took a liking for some of my students. Of course, some of them were really cute and I cannot deny that I had my eye on a few.

It was a “love and hate” relationship—my students loved me and some teachers hated my guts!

But that didn’t bother me much. Looking back, I never felt inspired and organized as I was back then. My life fell into a sense of order and I was quite successful at juggling my work schedules so that I could make it to my classes early enough and stay a bit longer and huddle with colleagues and students.

It was also during this time that I got to polish my skills at processing black and white film and photo prints. I was assigned a “dark room” but unfortunately, some genius thought that since there was a red bulb in the room, they could switch it to any colored bulb. I didn’t think anyone could be so dumb so one afternoon, I did my usual film processing and printing. Little did I know that when I was about to view the prints before they went to the “fixing bath” and I turned the light on, voila, a bright blue bulb illuminated the dark room, practically fucking up all the prints!

For some reason, the students gravitated towards me. Like the Pied Piper, they would follow me around and we would often hang around in the school cafeteria and just shoot the breeze and some photos. I was unconventional and irreverent. I was also a staunch critic of the Catholic faith. I think the students learned more than just photography and they appreciated the fact that I was unlike most faculty members who seemed like they’ve been constipated for the last 6 months!

Over time, I would get invited to birthday parties or hang out with students on Saturday nights. They would mostly hang out at my place and Mommy would prepare snacks and just watch the ladies have good, clean fun with me being the only male around. I was the proverbial thorn among the roses and I enjoyed every minute of it!

 (To be continued)