Let the Games Storm On: Intrams 2024-2025 Push Through
Let the Games Storm On: Intrams 2024-2025 Push Through
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The Link, May 8, 2025
By Jose Joaquin M. Siwa
A few typhoons that terrorized us were Trami and Kristine, severe tropical storms that formed on October 20 in Guam. Before this, several provinces were still recovering from the damages caused the previous month by typhoon Julian. Playing safe this time, when PAGASA issued Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 1, several sports competitions scheduled between October 23-25 were postponed, and over 51 flights were canceled, stranding over a thousand passengers. One of the sports events that was canceled was the 2024-2025 LSM Intramurals.
On one sunny day, in October 2024, students from all grade departments came to school ready for action. Sporting t-shirts from yellow to blue to green and red, every student was pumped up with determination to bring home the bacon for their sections. And yet before they could even finish the fun games, the school was hit with a huge wave of disappointment to hear that classes were suspended, and that everyone was to be sent home that very noon.
Feeling defeated, all students went home that day with unspent energy and unemptied water bottles. The wait for the reschedule began. Following a series of suspensions due to the storm warning, the school carried on with their 1-week semestral break, a supposed reward for finishing both days of the Intramurals. Unfortunately, that ‘break’ proved to be longer than needed, and the students who were once ready and conditioned to go all out became rusty and unprepared.
As a result of this sudden suspension and semestral break, the plans that were initially made for each game were forgotten. The rosters and assignments had been thrown out the window, and the games became an unplanned mess.
One such unseen circumstance happened in the High School swimming competitions. While every other section met the requirement of 4 swimmers per section, one section in the eleventh grade was down by one man. It turned out that the student assigned to their section’s swimming team had forgotten about the event, and that he did not pack any swimming attire or toiletry.
Unwilling to accept disqualification, however, they managed to convince coach Chris Dela Cruz, the one in charge of the swimming competition, to let them compete as 3 people. After many attempts to sway him, Coach Chris finally allowed them to participate on the condition that one of the swimmers make 2 laps. They ended up winning last in the rankings, but according to them, it was better than disqualification.
Nature can often be cruel and unforgiving. It does not choose when it shall strike us with its power. We could have the best day ever and disaster may strike, or we could have perfect weather on bad days like breakups or failing an exam. If there was a lesson for me to take away from this, it would be to always expect the unexpected. We never know when Mother Earth will bring inconvenience. However, we mustn’t take out our frustrations on what we cannot control. Should something as unfortunate as that happen again, we’ll know this time to prepare for contingencies.
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