And then… a Miracle!

We did it!

We had successfully finished our Thesis 2 Defence!

Sunday

I arrived one hour late in our church. I’m on the lowest point of my life. That was June 8, 2007
I asked my God to do a miracle. A miracle that will finish our Thesis application and Thesis
Documentation. Walking towards the church, a frightening vision flashed before my eyes.
A vision of defeat, agony and despair. If we didn’t finished our thesis this saturday,
I’m ruined… totally wrecked. I can’t bear to stay another term in Mapua Makati just
to complete my research study. My family compells me to do my very best to get that
graduation diploma this August. I was desperate at that time and honestly, I just gave up.
“It’s over, I’ll not finish this on-time”. Last month, All i cared about was my certification exam.
Pam and Mark, my thesis-mate, were mad at me because i’m always late in our meetings, documentations
and testings. Honestly, I neglect doing my part and walk-out the scene.

“It’s over… ” - Jonjon Bonso

Monday
We inquired the husband of Prof. Christie on how to operate remote access service in microsoft. This is our last chance. If this won’t work then we’ll start all over again. We planned
another over-night at Pam’s house on Tuesday. Monday night, I got wasted. My energy was
totally depleted. I became a mist that fills the air. Floating. Nothing.

Tuesday
We had another meeting on Pam’s place in De Castro, Pasig. The call time? 8:00 AM. When
did i arrived? 12:30 PM. 4 hours and 30 minutes late. Supposedly, i should be there around
10:30 AM, but i got lost. I pulled over in Cubao, but my real destination was on Ortigas.
So, i went back again. Then after i got in Ortigas, i don’t know why i just rode a bus
going to Cubao again. Aww, my fault. And for the second time, i went back to Ortigas.
I thought that’s another good-for-nothing day and then..a miracle happened. Mark downloaded
an open-source application that is similar to our proposed application. We modify that
open-source application and suprisingly, it worked! I arrived home at 12:30 mn; tired, exhausted but calm.

Wednesday & Thursday
We conducted a demonstration of our new application to Prof. Christie Valero along with her husband last Wednesday. The demo was a complete success! We planned to take our defense this friday, but there was a research colloquia that day so we were moved on 10AM Saturday. I shouldered the expenses for the ringbind, photocopies and printing of our document.

Friday
Mark and I went to Pam’s house to prepare for our coming defense. We still made changes in our application that day. I slept around 2:30 AM and Pam at 4:30AM.

D-Day
56 57 58 59…00… 5:00am - Kkrriinngg!! My alarm sounds off, beckoning another milestone of my life. We had our breakfast around 6:00AM and went to school at 6:45AM. We arrived too early that day. Potch, Mich and James will be the first group to defend. At 8:00AM, Mark and I went to RCBC Tower to buy a dozen of donuts and drinks for the panelist. Again, my pocket cried for mercy. Alms?

We set-up one computer in the IT laboratory and one in the pantry. 9:00AM, the modem of our
PC malfunctioned minutes before our presentation. Up, down, Up, down. I was running to and fro just to troubleshoot the connection of the two computers. When Pam arrived in the scene, she configured the erratic computer and thank God, It worked.

10:30 AM - Room 201.

The These 2 Final Oral Presentation of Jonjon S. Bonso, Mark Ylleber C. Dumandan and Pamela Therese D. Perez which is entitled “File Access and Transfer Application for Desktop Computers using Public Switched Telephone Network” commenced.

“Good morning panelist, We are gathered here today to witness our Thesis 2 oral presentation entitled ‘File Access and Transfer Application for Desktop Computers using Public Switched Telephone Network’. Hi. my name is Jonjon S. Bonso, this is Mark Dumandan and Pamela Perez. Pam will discuss Chapter 1 then Mark and I will discuss Chapter 3…”

After our presentation, we proceeded to the IT Laboratory to conduct the application demonstration…

Error

“error [688] There was no Dial tone.” - Erratic Computer.
“Lord, lord, lord tulong po”.

We first checked the connection of the modem to the phone jack - NO DIAL TONE.
Then we tried to change a new RJ-11 of the local computer modem - NO DIAL TONE.
I went to the Remote computer to check the dial- up connection - NO DIAL TONE.

Waaah!!! Lord, Tulong po!. I bow my head and desperately cried out for mercy. Our panelist started to pressure us but our two advisers tried to keep the tension cool. We decided to use Aldrin Abary’s laptop. After i configured the connection. I run our application and i pushed the
DIAL a CONNECTION button.

Dialing to ‘===te=st===’… The modem starts to sound off.
kweeengGG,, Kwwreeww… Ewewong.. Ewong.. PppShhshhshhhtththththtt….

CONNECTED.

That single word almost killed me, It worked. We resume our demonstration and finally… the giving of the verdict. It’s almost 12 NN and our panelist will have their respective classes. We moved to room 202 and after discussing the revision:

Prof. De Goma : Oh ano Eira, anong Verdict?
Prof. Camus : Ha? ahh.. Minor.
Prof, De Goma : Oh Minor daw.. Cge congratz.

SUCCESS!

Finally, after all we’ve been through, It’s finished! The only remaining problem is our Loooooong Revision
list, IEEE Journal, Proof Read, Book Bind,
Green Form and Party! >:) Rock On.

Acknowledgement

On my previous narratives, i keep in asking God for guidance.

God will make a way,
when there seems to be no way,
He Work in ways we cannot see,
HE had MADE a way for me.

Lord God, why did i ever doubted you.
Thank you for this blessing you had given me.
Maraming Salamat Panginoon, Tunay ka ngang Dakila.
Maraming Salamat sa iyong Pag-ibig.
To all of my batchmates who had also successfully slaughtered the

“Big micheavously-looking monster guarding the College Graduation” aka Thesis , Congratz!

Congratulations to my cousin, Noriko Santilla and her groupmates: Ara De Mayo (my OJT-mate) and Karen Cunnanan.Congratulations to Potch, James and Mich.

Thank you for this. Few days left and i’m out of my “HARDEST TERM OF MY ENTIRE COLLEGE LIFE”

Friend, If you have a complicated problem. Give it to the Lord! Do your best and God will surely do the rest.I had stand on your shoes, I had experienced depression, persecution and desperation. And it’s really hard to TRUST God.. It’s hard to PRAY CONTINOUSLY. It’s hard to hold on to Christ. But if you keep on kicking, If you keep on praying, if you keep God’s words deep in your heart, then Solace will be at hand.

Before I end this narrative, may i share my favorite verses of the Bible.

“I can do everything through Christ who gives me Strength”

- Philippinians 4:11

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed”

- Prov. 16:31

Trust God Today!