The Highlight of My 2021: MA Literature Graduation

As we all can agree on, 2021 was a whirlwind of events. From extended quarantines to granular lockdowns to new COVID-19 variants to online classes to Typhoon Odette, it was a helluva year. But its redeeming factor for me was fourteen years in the making:

I finally got my master's degree!

Screenshot from the online graduation ceremony

Grad school has been an odyssey that started in 2007. Right after BSED-English graduation, I enrolled in Cebu Normal University for MAEd English Language Teaching (ELT). It was out of my duty as a university instructor to get a master's degree asap. It is the minimum requirement to teach at the college level.

But what was supposed to be a 4-year plan got extended. I was traumatized with how the department chair at the time behaved during my thesis title defense. She was fuming and ranting, yet she didn't offer any concrete suggestion. It was the first time in my entire student life to experience such a thing, and I was a consistent honor student since elementary. So imagine my horror. But maybe if I was any good at research at the time, it wouldn't have happened. Who knows?

Maybe it was meant to be. The incident made me decide to follow my heart instead. I shifted to MA Literature in 2011. A friend has been telling me for the longest time that I was more suited in this field, and he was right.

With our Spanish class instructor, Señor Toledo

I flourished in my new major. Everything seemed to just flow--easy, fun, and enjoyable. I was in the right pond.

Within a year, I was able to finish all course requirements and succesfully presented my thesis proposal.

Dr. Pesirla was one of the reasons I enrolled in CNU. It is an honor and a privilege to be his student. He was also my thesis adviser. We both admire Shakespeare, and one of my fondest memories would be the time he made me stand on the teacher's table so I could sing Les Miserables's "I Dreamed a Dream" on a "stage."

The title of my research paper is Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Laurents's West Side Story: An Intertextual Deconstruction. I chose this because I was actively involved in theatre at the time, and of course, I'm a fan of both plays. It was the perfect marriage of my grad school and theatrical pursuits.

Then life happened . . .

I got busy with teaching and theatre productions. Aside from that, I realized that my research design was quite complex; there were too many variables and questions to answer. Add to this my perfectionist tendency, and you have the perfect recipe for a long road to graduation.

Plot twist! Just when I finished the draft of the analysis and interpretation of data, I went to work abroad.

Two breakups and almost four years later, I was back in Cebu in 2019 to finally do something with my MA Literature degree. It was definitely a major unfinished business. Besides, what's the best way to get over a guy? Get a master's degree! Add another word to your name's suffixes! Conquer the world! Defy gravity!

Okay. Let's take a breath. Because I finally faced my highly esteemed panel on August 2019, and they all agreed. I passed!

I am forever grateful to my awesome set of panel members. Indeed, I was able to make it because I was sitting on the shoulders of these great professors.

There was a long list of suggestions for revisions, yet I wasn't fazed at all. I was deliriously happy. Also, I was teaching research at UC Pri at the time, and I had an amazing support from my coteachers.

I wanted to make it to the March 2020 graduation, but then again, I was teaching full-time. I must tell you that I am terrible at multitasking. Also, I wanted to make sure I was revising my paper properly. I was only going down this road once. I better get it right.

Then March 16, 2020 happened, and all of Cebu was in lockdown because of COVID-19. Somehow the tension of quarantine and my thesis paper along with the dalgona coffee fad resulted to a massive hyperacidity attack. My paper didn't move an inch for almost a month.

When I got better shortly before June 2020, I started planning my thesis work. I'd list all the parts I needed to write. Checking them off was a great reward. But the best part was submitting the full revision on July 2020. I finally started the long and arduous application for graduation process.

I officially graduated in January 2021, and the online graduation ceremony was in June. It's different when were doing everything online. The only times I went to CNU were when I submitted my hardbound copies and when I got my copies back along with my TOR.

My closest cousins and I call each other "doll." They bought me a cake, and Mama cooked her signature dishes for dinner.

I must tell you that I was ecstatic, grateful, elated, and satisfied. Finally. Finally. Finally . . . I was done. I can now write:

April Anne Moncada, LPT, MA Lit. ❤

No storm nor pandemic can take it away from me. Also, that was the biggest inner storm I have just conquered.

Now, I wonder what I'm gonna do this 2022. 😉

Wanna get to know me more? Click here: Get to Know April: A Self-Intro Blog

And please feel free to follow me to read more about my adventures and creative writing endeavors. Cheers! 🥂

Images: All photos are owned by the author unless otherwise indicated.

NB: LPT means Licensed Professional Teacher.