Since coming back to UP this April, it was only yesterday that I was able to visit my friends at the registrar's office. The office was quite far and it was only this week that I was able to bring my car.

I have known them for almost six years now. I have been a student assistant of our registration system and later on worked full-time for the project. The first question they asked was why I did not go back to the project. I need to study and I doubt if I can handle the project and study at the same time. Much as I like to help right now, I doubt if I can.

I do miss the job sometimes. But I guess at one point we all have to move on. Some of the things that I would remember during my stint at our computerized registration system:

• Friends – I gained a lot of friends because of the Starcraft, Counterstrike and Warcraft sessions.
• Computer Hardware – Have you ever assembled a Xeon server? Or have you ever heard the whine of 15K RPM SCSI HDDs on RAID 5?
• Siesta – Back then we have folding beds for overnights. But I use it to sleep during the afternoon.
• Free food – Free merienda and lunch during the registration period. Our merienda and lunch is a good barometer of the economic state of the country. Initially our drinks was Coke in can. Later on it was Zest-O cola. After that it was a small bottle of mineral water or some juice drinks. I heard that because of the 12% VAT they would reduce the amount of food for the next enlistment.
• Internet – I will work for bandwidth! Before there was DSL and cable internet, we were enjoying fast internet connection at the department especially during the night.
• Spirit of Service – One of the my teammates said it all: "We should not think of ourselves as the prince(s) of the registration but rather the servant of the students." Who would spend nights, weekends and even brave the storm to program and run the enlistment for Php2,500(student assistant rate) a month?

——————————————-

Forgot to put this in the list:

• Printers – We have some of the best kickass printers. We even had a copier/printer that can print all of the Form 5As(registration form of UP) in a day.