I still vividly remember my first day as a freshman at the University of the Philippines. It was 6:30 in the morning. I was half an hour early for my Communications I class. With my old, red Jansport backpack serving as my security blanket, I anxiously walked along the empty hallway. After spending the last 12 years of my life in an all-boys school, I did not know how to feel or think about having female classmates in a very large campus. As fate would have it, I was the second student to arrive for class, the first being a petite girl. She was standing outside the classroom when I nervously approached the door. Nobody else was there. Obviously, I kept my distance. However, she did not. She asked me for the time.