Personal Narrative: Bacolod

After thirty-six hours of turbulent flights I arrived in Bacolod, feeling jetlagged and underqualified. It’s true the virtual calculator I wrote to make shorter work of my Algebra homework had become a minor hit online, garnering a few hundred downloads; and it’s true that the computer I wrote that calculator on I had “Frankensteined” together with components from the recycling center. But I had never worked in IT, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that the position my uncle had offered me, intern with the IT department of the all-ages school where my aforementioned uncle worked as vice-principal, was one that could be better filled by someone else. Of all the teenage computer geeks with no summer plans, why me? To top things off, I didn’t speak a word of Ilongot. Even though Bacolod is my mother’s hometown, I came there an outsider, a Texan unable to tell balut from a balisong. After few days of recovery, which I gratefully spent sleeping, gaining weight, and trying to remember the names of the multitudinous relatives who expected me to recall our last meeting, eight years ago. …show more content…
The daily routine of fixing printers, removing malware, explaining to suspicious teachers that I was not, in fact, installing malware, all fell into place. What caused me slight concern was my supervisor, Elmer, the newly hired computer teacher. It wasn’t that Elmer was some ill-tempered stentorian; he was very friendly. The problem was, as he explained to me not thirty minutes after we were introduced, Elmer’s knowledge of computers went about as far as Photoshop usage. For anything more technical, I would on my