As part of the General Education curricula of UP, we have to take all these subjects that would not even make a dent in our professional lives. We sit through and endure the rigors of the likes of Humanities 1 and Humanities 2 (not to mention their tiring productions) and all those other Social Science courses, all with but one goal: to pass and fulfill a requirement. And no matter how sad this may sound, it is the same case with most, if not all, the students taking medical or paramedical courses who think of these courses as mere extra work load to fill up the required number of units per semester.

However, once in a while, in our seemingly century-long semesters in UP, we find ourselves in a lame excuse for a classroom with decade old chairs in a class that is in no way connected to our degree program and just shocked and awed at the brilliance of our professor's mind. And yes it has happened to me, no it happens to me...every Mondays and occasional Thursdays that I have Social Science 2 classes.

Yes. SOCIAL SCIENCE 2. So how in the world is that connected to Speech Pathology? I, too have no idea, but it is one of the best classes I ever took. All thanks to my brilliant professor: Mr. Jalton Taguibao. And yes, he's the same Jal from Sugarfree. (Surprising isn't it?)

Sir Jal is by far one of the best teachers I've ever had in my whole entire academic career. At first I thought that my SocSci2 class would be similar to my SocSci1 class, which was useless as sh*t, (pardon my French) but I knew for sure that it was definitely not going to be like the latter. And I realized that twenty, no ten minutes into our first class with him. He's THAT good. And so I thought that I would have the same learning/educational experience every time we had class with him, but I was again proven wrong. He just keeps getting better and better with every meeting that passes by. Just like the adobo he keeps using as an example. (ang adobo pag mas matagal na mas masarap...) He might think that we just sit and stare in his class, laugh at his jokes and his stories, but no, that's not what we're really doing. We're merely giving him all the time to talk and lecture because one may never know how much wisdom you can get from that man and how much of it you're going to miss if you interrupt! YES. HE'S THAT GREAT.

Yes, Sir Jal may not look or seem like it (especially when you watch his band's music videos), but he has one of the most brilliant minds ever. He may not go to class regularly but he surely makes up for it with his genius lectures when he is there. Point is, he can take on any professor and stomp him or her, in my book. (basta sa DSS no sa CAS!) And yes, I am currently intellectually infatuated by him. (and so are most of my friends)