OVERJOYED
by AIREEN TAMAYO PARDILLO, RPm
Everyone I know who aspired to become a registered Psychometrician has been preparing for the board exam since June. Review Centers here in Davao City were already welcoming reviewees. I wanted to enroll because customarily, that is what board exam takers primarily do. Too bad the situation I am in did not permit me to. I experienced financial constraint which hampered me from enrolling in a review center. Not just some financial constraint where I cannot pay for the enrollment, but it is more of a survival game. I cannot even pay for my tuition in school! On top of that, my salary is like “Coke” (as what they say). If it’s not sakto, it’s zero. Why is that? I got 3 loans to pay for to assist my father in financing the building of our new tiny house. It was even difficult to buy a sumptuous meal for lunch so I struggled with noodles and luncheon meat alternately.
So there, my friends started reviewing while I was busy preparing for my upcoming wedding on October 20. My fiancé was still in KSA while I was attending to all the details for our big day. I did not get me a wedding planner/organizer because we are really trying to save, again due to financial constraint. So I did all the planning (credits to my fiancé for his little efforts and for financing the wedding though :P)
It was one week before the exam, and I was not even finished reading the whole book of Theories of Personality! That’s one subject there. I ordered a reviewer from SPARK but was not able to read it because I was too busy. I work from 8am-5pm from Mondays to Fridays and attended school every Saturdays from 8am-9pm. All the details for the wedding were to be attended before I sleep. My only review time is every morning while taking a doze of early morning coffee.
For the whole month of September, I was busy doing school works. Doing reports, preparing TNA, practicing counseling skills, writing modules for every topic we had discussed in one subject.
The following month came. October 20, big day for me! From being Ms. Pardillo to Mrs. de Lara. Next day, I felt relieved (credits to all who helped us prepare the program, to MSYS team who beautifully and perfectly decorated the place for the wedding). Thank God for the successful day. So there, done with all that décor thingy, photoshoots, dress ups. Next in line, the upcoming board exam. From the bottom of my soul I wanted to be a registered Psychometrician. I was hopeful. Well, I got no other choice because if I fail the exam, I might lose my work.
Me, and my ex-boyfie (my husband) left Davao on October 26 at 7:45pm. Due to traffic, we arrived at NAIA at around 10PM. Since we are both unfamiliar with the place, and because our budget is only good for a 2-night stay in a hotel (plus food allowance), we decided to stay in the airport until October 27 early morning. We slept on the floor of NAIA, with all other passengers passing by. While having our goodnight sleep, a security guard from the airport woke us up telling us to transfer because their utility will be cleaning the vicinity. We transferred to another area, still within the lobby, and continued to doze off on the floor. We left the airport at 4am and traveled to Recto where UE is located.
I spent the whole afternoon of October 27 reviewing DSM-IV TR on my laptop while hubby was enjoying the NATGEO channel. After scanning through my e-book, I forced myself to read and answer the reviewer I got from SPARK. It was too painful for me since I know I only got so little time. It was the only time I seriously studied the board subjects. Tired, I stopped reading and said to myself “bahala na, gikapoy na ko ug basa”.
The following day. This is it! I felt jitters all over my body. I experienced stomach ache and been into the bathroom twice before I left the hotel for the first subject of the first ever board exam in the Philippines! PT was given first. I’ve studied this well. After reading question number 1, I was like, OMG! I scanned all the other questions and felt even jitterier. It was difficult. Well at least for me. The questions were tricky as well as the stems. Plus, I am not too familiar with those theories. I felt hopeless after completing the first test. After the second day, I was hopeful that I would pass the exam but I could not gather enough courage and belief for myself. Only God can do what I cannot do. What we cannot do. I continuously prayed even after the exam. We went back to Davao on November 3.
A friend told me that the results will be released on November 4, at 8pm. I painstakingly waited. I refreshed a lot of pages for a hundred times, eager to see the results until I gave up and slept. The following morning, my husband woke me up and told me that a friend in fb posted a screenshot of his name being on the list of roll of successful examinees. He then opened my account and checked first my inbox after seeing 6 notifications of messages. There it is! After opening one of the messages, we read a CONGRATULATIONS! I was in disbelief! All the pain and the tears I’d been through paid off! But hey, I was still in disbelief! Yet together we thanked God for this success! If I try to look back, I got all the reasons not to pass the board exam due to the challenges I’d been through. I cannot even describe it well here. But God has made a way and made me victorious. For the nth time, He showed me His grace and His faithfulness to His promises. In just a month, I got two things in a row now connected to my name: Aireen Pardillo – “DE LARA”, “RPm”.
To my friends who were not able to pass the exam, may you hold on to your hopes and continue to strive hard. God bless us all!
(Aireen is 26 years old, with a degree in BS in Psychology from Holy Cross of Davao College, batch 2009. She is currently working as a Psychometrician in a private testing center in Davao City. Among the great psychologists, she both like Carl Rogers and Maslow. Aireen enjoys reading detective stories, sometimes playing DOTA as a stress-busting hobby. Her plan for the future is to finish masters degree by 2015 and take up the board exam for psychologists.)
