Having neat and organized notes is one of the counted things that I could be proud of myself during my college days.



My wish is that I could be able to regain the skill and patience in producing this piece of organized work. I still take notes and maintain a notebook today. I, by the way, also have this unusual hobby of collecting nice notebooks.



I try my best to write thoughts in my planner everyday. I take down notes because of my work, but my handwriting now is so atrocious. I don’t know why I ended up losing such talent (I’m really calling it a talent because not everyone can possess it). Lesser handwriting activities brought about my dependence over computers could perhaps explain.



Why all of a sudden I am blogging about my notes and handwriting?

Six years after acquiring my college degree, I am teaching Microeconomics for the first time. I am a major in Economics but I never had the opportunity to teach my course. In the past three years, I am limited on handling Thesis, Feasibility Study and Business Plan Writing subjects.

This also makes me remember an older schoolmate, who finished as the batch valedictorian. She shared in an interview for the school paper that she managed to keep her notebooks in all of her major subjects. Her first job was a college instructor and she proudly admitted that her notes were very helpful in her job.

She is no doubt a role model to follow. But believe it or not, I am not a ”gaya gaya” or a copycat. She wasn’t my insipiration for keeping my notebooks. I decided to keep my notebooks even before I knew her. It was clear to me that time that I wanted to pursue a career in teaching. I kept my notes and my notebooks because I know that they would be of big help someday.

I applied for a teaching job in the university where I graduated and experienced my first ever job rejection. I was advised to pursue my graduate studies. Though I really have plans of earning my masters, I shifted the gears of my career. I decided to look for another job that is near to my course. Taking a job related to research was my second dream and everything went as history.

I got employed as a researcher in an educational institution. I did not become an educator, but I was given the privelege of working to an institution of educators. Although the teaching opportunity is almost near to my reach, it took me three years before the management gave me the chance to teach. I had to earn my graduate degree before I was finally given a teaching stint. Though I could already teach while I was acquiring my degree, I decided to wait. I want to take things one at a time. During this time, I also felt a degree of contentment in my full time research job. The dream of teaching was not anymore with me. However in June 2008, barely a month after passing my thesis defense, my dream of becoming an educator was unexpectedly fulfilled.

Aside from my simple teaching dream, another reason why I was compelled to keep an organized notes is because I don’t have enough books in college. Most of the textbooks prescribed by our professors were authored and published from international sources. As you know, these books are really pricey. I managed to bought some foreign authored books in some of my major subjects. However, financial constraints still delimited me from purchasing books. If the book, has no low priced or paperback edition, I will definitely not acquire it. Those books whose leaves are like those of a glossy magazine never became a part of my possessions. I always landed on those dark, thin and brittle paperbacks.

The absence of reference books obliged me to maintain an organized and systematic notes. If you have a professor who is like dependent to a single book, you will definitely have a hard time reviewing if you don’t have sufficient notes. I have my own share of experiences from such kind of professors too. My book dependent professors obliged me to almost take down every word he utters and explains. The worst thing about this practice is that in some instances, I feel that I am just listening and writing. I don’t anymore understand and comprehend the lecture.

Now that I am an educator, I don’t depend to a single book in my lectures. My discussions are chopsuey of online sources, foreign authored books and of course, my own notes and notebooks.  I don’t know if my students could ever track the sources and patterns of my lectures. But I guess, at the end of the day, what is perhaps most important is that my students also learn from my own hard worked notes..... Hopefully :)