Rewind — Today was supposed to be a busy day. Three classes awaited us: IT APPDEV3, DSA, and IAS. Two exams were lined up, and I had already accepted the fate of another exhausting Friday. But life, as always, had other plans.
Our IAS professor sent a message in our group chat — he wouldn’t be coming today; his mother was in the hospital. And now, only one subject with an exam to face. Our first class turned into an online activity. A sigh of relief, a brief calm before the next challenge.
Now back to the present — This subject, Data Science Analytics, revolves around Excel: Data Cleaning, Toolpacks, Pivots, and the like. And honestly, Excel has never been my friend. I’ve said it before — I struggle with it. Sure, I know a few things (thanks to Ma’am Lung-ayan), but while reading through the modules she sent, my mind felt like a blank spreadsheet — empty cells waiting to be filled.
Still, I tried. Before the exam, I decided to follow the tutorials, step by step, hoping something would finally click. And surprisingly, it did. Slowly, the functions began to make sense, as if the formulas themselves were speaking to me.
Then came another twist: today’s exam wasn’t the lab exam I prepared for — it was written instead. Relief washed over me; it meant more time to practice, more time to understand rather than rush. The exam itself went smoothly. The lessons Ma’am Lung-ayan once taught echoed in my head. I might’ve made a few mistakes, but they were small ones — barely a blip in the data of today.
And when I got home, I did what any tired student would do: I surrendered to sleep.
Tonight, as I write this, I realize something. “You don’t always have to memorize to remember. Sometimes, understanding through experience makes things stay longer — deeper. Like in life, you can’t move forward if you keep holding on to what’s behind you.”
Funny, isn’t it? How even Excel can teach you about life.
