The clouds here in Kidapawan City were as gloomy as my feelings the day I arrived here a few weeks ago. I dreaded the day when I finally have to go to Kidapawan for my nursing review. It was supposed to be in Davao. My friends and I already made arrangements for our review in Davao City. But fate intervened. Our school administrators decided that we will be having our review at Kidapawan, in spite of our vehement protests. I had no qualms on the choice of the review center. After all, East West Educational Specialists is a reputable review center with an impeccable track record. But Kidapawan City as the review venue was another story.
When one hasn't made a visit to a particular place, one normally has a biased on that place usually basing on what one has read about the place or has heard about it. The same can be said about me and Kidapawan. I always thought of it as parochial and quite rural. From Cotabato going to Davao, Kidapawan has always been a sort of stop-over. Its fruits had always beckoned us to have a second look at Kidapawan. But that's as far as it goes. All had in mind about Kidapawan are its fruits. Ergo, it's a City of fruits only with nothing else to offer.
My biases were reinforced on the day we arrived here in Kidapawan City. Like I said earlier, the weather did not cooperate. It was raining heavily. So all I saw was the pension house in which we will be billeted for the rest of our stay here. I wish I could say that our dormitory is everything it should be. But I learned already that in life one cannot have what one wishes. To be happy, a great French philosopher Fr. Marie-Dominique Philippe has said again and again, one has to learn to accept in stride what life has to offer and make the best out of it. So with that in mind, I was ready to embrace my life here in Kidapawan for the next five months.
Colegio de Kidapawan is a community college privately owned and funded with all the modern facilities of a school one normally finds in a much cosmopolitan city. I chuckled upon learning that the school is even a wi-fi zone. Their nursing laboratory and library were equally impressive. What made a definite mark was when I noticed that the students were quite disciplined. From where I came from students were as boisterous as anywhere else. JV and Abby, two of my closest friends, even noted that the environment is quite remarkable.
We were given a warm welcome by their dean. She even told us to approach her for any queries and problems we might encounter. After all, she was our clinical coordinator back in Cotabato City. The students of Colegio are determined and hardworking. My fellow reviewees from Cotabato City could learn so much from them. Our seatmates Chari, Richard and Sheila even became friends. They told us where to dine, shop and everything else. When I had questions all I have to do is to text them and they were more than willing to answer them. I get inspired from them to study harder when I see them review with all their heart.
That is why I believe that Kidapawan is destined to become a great city, far greater even than Cotabato City. It is not because of its annual fruit festival or even its many springs and other tourist attractions, but its people, who are warm, hospitable, friendly, resilient, determined, honest and hardworking, are the one making it a city to beat. Come to think of it I wouldn't mind settling here for good.
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