Before I used to get a lot of questions like, "What did you do while waiting for the exam results?", "Did you sleep well?", and "How did you manage to keep yourself at ease while waiting?"

My answer: Patiently wait for it and what is yours will truly come to you. [Char!]

The truth is, after my last exam during the two-day Medical Technology licensure exams last August 2016, I prayed that it will be fine and that I'll be able to place those three coveted letters after my last name --- RMT. The next day, I started to pretend like I'm in quarantine for days. I did not celebrate nor did I went out of the house. I watched different movies and shows in the genre of drama and comedy [Nagpapa-OK kahit hindi okay]. I ate a lot of food and even gained weight. I cleaned my room filled with scattered review notes and books to forget that the exam happened. But most of the time, I was sleeping or looking outside the window waiting for a sign that I would pass. It went on like that for three days and a half and it felt like the longest wait I have ever done in my twenty-two years of existence. It was torture and nerve-wracking. I even 'murdered' the refresh button of the site where the list will come out.

On the night the results for the board exam were to be posted online, I was with my little brother at home. He was playing computer games upstairs while I was watching Chicken Little in the living room. For three straight hours, I was anxiously holding my phone waiting for someone to text me and eventually, I got tired and placed it on the center table. 

When Chicken Little sang the song 'We Are The Champions' by Queen, it gave a huge smile on my face. Though I watched the movie so many times, it was only at that moment that it felt different. It was like the heavens were giving me a sign.

I stood up to get a glass of water and I noticed a green blinking light on my phone. I grabbed it thinking it was just an ordinary notification but it turned out to be a personal message from a friend.

"I passed!" and I simply asked, "what did you pass?"

I wasn't able to get it at first. I paused for a few seconds then my senses came back, "The results are out!". I immediately opened the site and I scrolled so fast that I wasn't able to notice that I was already at the end of the list.

Yes, I was that excited that I missed my last name. *Facepalm

I paused for a while. I took a deep breath and started scrolling from Z to R slowly. While scrolling, I felt my hands shaking and my heartbeat was so loud. It was so loud that I thought I was about to pass out. I wanted to pee already and I was sweating excessively. The feeling was like I'm on top of a skyscraper looking at a glass window with the view of death below.

When the first 'R' last name appeared on my phone screen, I started mumbling my family name. I kept on mumbling until I saw my full name on the list.

I started shouting and jumping around the house. I kept on laughing. I was slapping my face to convince myself that I was not dreaming. It was like I won the Miss Universe title or it was a Beyoncé moment singing "Who Run The World". It was the the best moment that I've been waiting for. A step closer to my dreams and a new beginning. 

Some of my friends weren't able to make it but as what others say, "If God shuts a door, stop banging on it! Trust that whatever is behind it is not meant for you". 

There will always be moments in our life when we want something so bad and it will come to us at the right time. There are also some that teaches us lessons and leads us to new doors.

At some point in my school life, I failed. It took me time to face reality. I even started opening other doors but then every door I opened still led me to my dream destination --- to become a registered medical technologist. I stopped banging the "what could have been" and trusted on what was "now". Always trust in the process.

It takes perseverance, courage, and dedication to be successful in life but I guess the best advice is to pray and to believe in yourself.

I didn't follow those superstitious board exam beliefs such as wearing of red underwear, throwing or breaking of pencils or calculators, or moving of the chairs, or not looking back at your exam chair. All I had was my faith in God and my bag of knowledge collected from my four years in college and from the review center I enrolled in to survive the board exam. After all, nobody could ever beat a person with the will to keep on moving forward despite failures and challenges.