Through The Charmera Kodak Lens: Between Downpours and Deadlines

It has been raining more often than usual these days in our town and in the town where my school is located. We are used to wet weather, but we don't actually like it when it rains consistently for days because it makes our days harder when going out and moving around, especially for students like us who travel to another town every day and arrive at school with uniforms so wet. But there is one thing I like about rain: it decreases the temperature in our school and therefore we don't suffer from the heat index anymore or get our faces haggard after a long day. But at the same time, the cold weather always makes us feel sleepy during discussions and we couldn’t concentrate in class. There are pros and cons of this weather, but we have no choice because the weather pattern is getting more abnormal due to climate change.

Since we couldn’t do something that would eliminate this problem immediately, I will just share with you our college life through the lens of Charmera Kodak during rainy days. It has been two days of rain, and tomorrow and the next days will also be wet and are going to make the land cry.

What I also hate about rainy days is the transport. Even if I use an umbrella, my shoes and pants still get wet, and I feel uncomfortable inside the class when my wet pants touch my body. Aside from this, rainy days mean a harder way of going to stores and karenderyas during lunch because students flock there at this time and we couldn’t find another one aside from those in front of our school since it is raining heavily.

On my way to the building where my classes are held, I was grateful for the walkway where I could walk freely without getting wet. But it doesn’t lead to the building completely, so I have to run fast at the end and try harder not to get wet while heading inside.

College life is all about discussions and activities in between. I’m just grateful I chose the program I am passionate about, the Psychology program, and I am enjoying my time here even if it has been three years already and counting. We were having our discussions in Abnormal Psychology and Organic Chemistry in the photos, which the latter is my least interesting subject this year. Chemistry just bores me and I couldn’t really understand my instructor with his gibberish and life narration instead of talking about these organic compounds and elements.

Whenever our instructor is not around at a given time, I go outside the classroom and watch the students walk around and observe everything that happens. It is also my way of being safe since we still feel aftershocks here after the 6.9 magnitude earthquake. I spend time outside so I can run safely when things start to shake. Lol.

If you’ll ask me what my favorite time during class days is, it would be lunchtime. Lunchtime is the best part of the day for a student who likes to eat. Listening to discussions really does make me hungry. We have a usual go-to mini restaurant in front of the school and we always eat there. But when the rain gets so heavy, we can’t run without getting wet and slipping on the ground, so we sometimes decide to eat near the cafeteria and order some barbecue even if we don’t like eating barbecue during lunch because we are used to eating it at dinner.

Grateful to have friends in college that I can rely on and be with during stressful days. They say life is better alone, which I agree with in some corners of our lives, but in college, you can survive at a higher percentage if you have people to survive with. These friends of mine helped me navigate college life silently, and I learned how to value friendship and accept what I need to accept from peer influences. It is nice to go through college with friends, but the skill to be alone never left me, so I can still stand up even without a companion beside me.

Rainy days may slow our steps, soak our uniforms, and test our patience, but they also show the small details of student life that sunny days often hide — shared umbrellas, crowded lunches, quick runs between buildings, and quiet moments of reflection. Through this wet season, the routine continues, the lessons go on, and so do we — learning, adjusting, and finding something to be grateful for, even under gray skies.