My best summer ever

AJSS Batch 48 at Enchanted Kingdom

“Choose one person in your class,” the final Chemistry essay prompt read. “What kind of intermolecular bond would you want to form with them, and why?”

It was the first and only time that tears welled in my eyes during a Science examination.

Not an ordinary question—but then again, the Ateneo Junior Summer Seminar (AJSS) is no ordinary summer, either.

Now on its 48th year under the Ateneo de Manila University’s Office of Admission and Aid, the AJSS is an extremely challenging one-semester summer program for incoming high school seniors.

Hundreds of top high school juniors from across the country took the Ateneo College Entrance Test (Acet), a year before they were to graduate. The 36 members of our group were the chosen ones.

We were, without a doubt, a class of nerds. From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., under excellent and passionate professors, we rigorously took college classes every weekday in April and May—and reveled in them.

We extracted our own DNA with alcohol and Gatorade in Biology; in Psychology, we discovered that hypnosis was real.

We learned the chemistry of making ice cream with liquid nitrogen and the physics of manufacturing illusions with optics. We analyzed poignant literary pieces, immersed ourselves in mathematical proofs and pondered man’s place in the world.

PARTICIPANTS from different high schools become friends during the two-month program.

That AJSS being mentally rigorous was no surprise; that it was physically challenging as well was unexpected.

Friday afternoons were dedicated solely to sports. College varsity players coached us in volleyball, futsal, basketball, even cheering. Little by little, our serves became faster somehow; our kicks, stronger; our jump shots, higher.

We are proof that nerds can dance by substituting talent with enthusiasm.

AJSS was a crash course in real life, too. We learned to fit optimally in a tricycle and to maneuver around, along and above “Katips” (Katipunan) without being turned into human giniling (ground meat).

We experienced gut-wrenching dread when vending machines did not accept a slightly crumpled P20 bill. We cried on each other’s shoulder as long-repressed longings surfaced.

Although we staged a one-act play and studied in a week an entire module on matrices, six weeks were not nearly enough to spend with each other.

AND THE WINNER of the sports fest is … the Red Team!

AJSS gave all of us nerds the chance to come together. In each other’s eyes, we were not the smart people, the weird ones, or the useful pals to help us pass. We were friends—adjective-free. That alone made this our best summer ever.

My answer to that Chem question? We were all going our own way but were serendipitously drawn together by fate, quantum mechanics and a high-enough score on the Acet half a year ago.

IT’S STILL the same story—the boys serenade the girls on AJSS night.

In the time we had, we shared electrons (van der Waals forces or the attraction of molecules, remember?), ideas, joys, hopes and dreams.

Although all bonds break in time, I am comforted by the fact that, as improbable as the odds appear, these 36 bundles of flesh and molecules will meet again someday soon.

(Trust me. I solved for it.)

Scott Lee Chua of Xavier School is valedictorian and class president of AJSS Batch 48.