Lifestyle is a word synonymous to way of life, routine, means, standard of living, etc.. Filipinos, same as they are in origin of race, fluctuates a lot when it comes to their lifestyles. The elite Filipinos or those of the higher class are enjoying luxurious and extravagant lifestyle while those below the poverty line barely have time to enjoy and relax for they are busy making both ends meet.
The contrast of the lifestyle of the well-off Filipinos and the unfortunate ones can be pictured clearly on the college students coming from these social classes. The disparity starts from little things like the means of transportation to reach school up to big things like allowance and the school they go to.
The poor students who have full loads and have classes at 7:30 or earlier have to wake up at around 4:30. Aside from preparing breakfast and getting themselves ready for school, avoiding getting caught in the heavy morning traffic is one of the reasons why they have to shake drowsiness off that early. They also have to compete with other passengers during that rush hour and some have to walk for they don’t have money for fare. The rich students on the other hand don’t have to be up so early and they don’t have to ride a jeepney on their way to school because they will be conveying on their family cars, some have their own.
The poor students’ primary dilemmas are tuition fees, allowance, rent for the boarding house (for those who came from outside the city), money for school projects, and the likes but the rich students don’t have to think of all these stuffs because everything is being taken care off. Instead, they trouble themselves with what to wear on the next weekend party, when to buy that new apple laptop, when to revisit Bohol and how to make the professor give them a special exam since they missed that long quiz because they were partying the night before that.
The poor students spend their free time doing part-time jobs. Some of them are working as tutors, others as call center agents or customer care representatives, and others are working in fast food chains, and mostly are student assistants in various offices in their universities. But the scenario in the rich students’ lives is entirely different. During their free time, most of them usually hang-out in coffee shops like Starbucks and Bo’s Café or in pizza bars or in malls and thrash out things like the newest fashion and trends, the hottest professor in school, the cool air soft gears, the newest Ipod model, the next summer vacation destination, the person at school who owns that sleek and shiny red sports car, the newest and hottest disco bar in the metropolis, etc.. Others don’t just discuss, they do it. They stroll in malls for hours to check out new stuffs in fashion and in technology. And when they feel like buying something, they just give their credit cards to the cashier and presto, off they go with that package. That’s how easy life is for them.
When it comes to picking up a school to go to, the rich kids have a lot of choices. They can study in any school they want and they can afford to enroll in costly degree programs like medicine and law. They can also shift majors or courses or degree programs easily because their financial resources allow them to. In contrast, the poor college students spent their last months in high school applying for scholarships and scouting for sponsorships. Almost all of them have undergone at least three exams to get that scholarship offered by DOST, Metrobank, RAFI, and other foundations that are willing to help poor but intelligent and industrious students. Some students send their selves to school by working after or before classes. Those who were sent to school by their parents who want them to have a future different from them, have to study in state universities and colleges and took up courses that their parents can afford and the choices are not that numerous.
On the whole, the lifestyle of the rich and the poor students starts dissimilar and ends poles apart. A concrete example would be the following.
At four thirty to five o’clock in the morning, the poor student will rouse from her double deck bed to get ready for school. She has to move quickly because the boarding house is crowded and she doesn’t want to be the last one to use the bathroom. She then prepares her breakfast for it is costly to eat outside but most of the time she skips it because time and money asked her to. If she is already ready, she has to mingle with the crowd on the jeepney stop and tries hard to be on that very first jeepney. When she reaches school, she then sits in the class and tries hard to listen to the professor and tries even harder to ignore the sound of the empty stomach. In the middle of the discussion the teacher then announces a requirement for the course in which they have to spend a certain amount. She let out a sigh and tries to ignore the unpleasant feeling inside. During lunch time she gets out of the school and walks for three blocks to get into the eatery which offers cheap ngohiong and free water. After eating she goes back to school and into the library to prepare for tomorrow’s report. The clock on the library wall tells her its now time for her to be in her class. Upon entering the classroom, the class treasurer welcomes her by reminding her of the deadline for the membership fee of an organization in which they are mandated to join. And during her last class they are asked to photocopy certain pages of a book and they have to pay nine pesos to the treasurer. The details on the copy will be the items that will come out in tomorrow’s exam. She only have ten pesos in her pocket and that is intended for fare but she need to have that photocopy so she walks seven blocks to get to the house of her tutee and another eight to get home. She wants to clash right away but she has to study for two long quizzes tomorrow. She can’t afford to lose her academic scholarship. She only gets at most five hours of sleep every school day. This is how her life goes almost everyday. It is only altered when the landlady knocks her door early in the morning or late at night to get her rent which she can’t pay on time always.
The rich student’s day starts and ends quite the opposite of that of the poor student. She doesn’t have to be up so early because all she needs to do is to get herself a bathed and dressed. Breakfast if prepared for her and someone will drive her to school. She sits in the class with her stomach full and she need not worry about fees and costly projects. During lunchtime she can eat wherever she wants and she needs not to hurry up to get into the library to do some research because she can do her research over the internet through her laptop. Nobody keeps on reminding her about deadlines for membership fees because she paid it already. When classes are over someone will be there waiting to drive her home. If she doesn’t feel like going home early she would call her mom or dad or her driver not to pick her up in school. She’ll hang-out with friends in fancy coffee shops or in Japanese restaurants and then she’ll stroll around a mall and she’ll spend money like water. Then she’ll go home riding a taxi. She doesn’t have chores to do and she’s a bit tired for home works so she’ll just hit the sack. That’s how her life goes almost everyday except on weekends in which she would be in gyms, or resorts, or disco bars.
They are both students. They have the same goal- to get that desired diploma. But their ways towards that goal simply differs.
