Juan Ramon Sereno: The Wise Slave

Chapter 4: Wreck-It-Ralph

“Jay, I’ve already noticed that you’re on a daze for the last few days. I know your mom always asks you this, but let me ask you again: are you really okay?”

My mind went back from flying because of what Dad said while we were having dinner, one Saturday night.

“Huh – what? Oh! Um, yeah. I’m okay… I guess..?” I slowly replied.

Mom took a deep breath. “Even you’re not sure of your own answer, so Dad, your brother, and I have come to the conclusion that you’re thinking of something.”

Mom and Dad are like that. Even if Chuck and I don’t tell our problems to them, they have a way of knowing if we really have problems. I just don’t know how I would tell them that I’m a bit struggling with my studies. There are a lot of things needed to study in Physiology, Biochemistry, Histology, and Preventive Health and Community Medicine. But what really drives me bonkers is Gross Anatomy… or maybe just for me. I naturally suck at memorizing numerous muscles, blood vessels, and nerves in the human body, so Gross Anatomy became even harder. But this isn’t really my biggest problem. It’s like I wanted to request the reinstatement of Clinical Epidemiology to the curriculum because of this.

During the three weeks that passed since I became a Medical student, we already had three meetings in P.E. every Saturday, from nine to eleven in the morning. And I think the administration put me in the most difficult of all P.E. courses: judo. Before entering the class on our first meeting, I’ve done a little bit of research regarding judo. From what I’ve read, only the code of conduct stayed in my memory. When I entered the dojo the next morning, I doubted the administration whether they were really fair in assigning a P.E. course to every student or not. All of my classmates looked like they were already experts in this sport. I can already compare their body sizes to Andre, just like Ernie and Randolf. There were also those who have the same size as me, but their stance are definitely stronger than mine, like Arvind and Cedric. I could probably say that I’m a lone sheep that strayed in a lions’ den.

We didn’t really do anything during our first meeting, but during the second meeting which took place last week, tiredness almost killed me. I couldn’t possibly count the times Darwin and Ricky slammed me onto the mat. But I am the type of person who doesn’t like to make a fool of himself. If I surrender immediately, they would definitely say that I have no determination. Many times have they slammed me onto the mat, but I didn’t stop. This is the reason why some of my classmates were impressed and they invited me to have lunch with them.

I didn’t have my own lunch because I thought I was able to go home immediately, so I just went with them in I Saw ‘D Light @ Isaw Delight. Here, I saw that my classmates were completely different people inside and outside the dojo. While conversing, I found out that Ernie, Arvind, Cedric, Darwin, and more of them have been playing judo long before, and they’re more than glad to help us who aren’t doing well. One of them actually volunteered to be my sparring partner because he saw how Ricky crushed me a while back. He introduced himself to me as Tobiah Magsangcay, or Toby for short. We had the same height, but he had bigger muscles and he’s two years older than me. He had black cropped hair, his black eyes are almost rectangular in shape, his nose is big and sharp, and his lips are really thin, and I think this is because he always shows his teeth. He also said that judo is easy to master and even small Japanese children are doing this. I was a bit reassured because of this.

Our second and third meeting are almost just the same, if you compare them to the number of times I fell on the mat. The only thing that might have changed is that I have learned to use my feet in tripping my opponent and make him fall on the mat. I managed to slam Toby twice or thrice on the mat, compared to the numerous times he did it to me.