Hello, Hive friends! It took me a while to drop by because our academic research almost devoured me whole for the entire week.

It was an exhausting yet a fun experience—what made it fun is the fact that I am working on it with my circle; yes, my girls are my groupmates. We booked a single room and gathered together for one whole day preparing for the awaited research defense, which we had last Thursday. Fortunately, we were able to defend our study and are now working on tiny changes in preparation for the publication.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that I have been busy and will be busier for the upcoming month since we will be deployed soon to our assigned schools for our practice teaching. It’s another thing I am worrying about, but like what I said before, that is something future me should worry about; for now, let me just tell you about the first overnight stay I had with my friends working on our research last academic year.

We were just in the 2nd semester of our 3rd year in this course, preparing for the research proposal. We agreed to gather in one place for the night since the presentation will be on the following day. I suggested we stay at my aunt’s place because she owns a boarding house business not too far from the university. We rent a room and got a big discount since the owner is my aunt, haha. Before we head there, @stellappreciates , @writewithjo , and I went to get some groceries first. We settled for cup noodles for dinner, which we are not complaining about since we love it.

After grabbing some snacks, we head to my aunt’s place right away. While waiting for our two other friends, Cath and Jera, the three of us took a nap since we were worn out from the previous final exam we just survived.

Jera arrived, and the four of us decided to go outside and sat right at the bay as we ate the spaghetti and loaf my aunt gave to us. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, my aunt’s place is right by the sea. We soaked our feet in the water for a couple of minutes and enjoyed the sea breeze before heading back inside.

_{The water was super clear resembling an emerald stone that shimmers everytime light hits it. It was so tempting that it made us want to jump right into it haha.}

The night has come, and we began with our work; unfortunately, Cath had to go home since her body was not in its best condition. The rest of us stayed and continued working on our research. For dinner, we had our cup noodles. The night was long as we each fought hard not to fall asleep, but Jera and Atet did haha. Jo and I had our coffee, and that’s how we survived the night.

We slept at 2 A.M. and set our alarms at 4 to 5 since we agreed to watch the sunrise together. After killing our alarms several times, haha, we successfully woke up at five in the morning and headed to the bay.

On our way there, the sun has not come out yet. The sky was filled with hints of purple, orange, and red in different shades. The dark gray sky had slowly been filled with colors until the most awaited celebrity of the day had shown itself.

Mr. Sun starts to come out at the center of the horizon. It was so beautiful, no flattering words are enough to justify its beauty. We felt so at peace as we all stared at it. And of course, we certainly cannot skip taking pictures.

I think we stayed looking at its beauty for almost an hour. We dipped our feet into the water and jokingly talked about pushing each other into it.

We made tiny flashes, and guess what happened next?

Atet, Jo, and I jumped into the water while Jera went back inside. Yeah, the three of us failed to resist the sea’s invite. Like tiny frogs, we paddled and crawled in the water since none of us can swim haha.

We were enjoying ourselves so much until we realized that it’s the day of our research proposal. Luckily, it is not until the afternoon, so we need not rush. We came out of the water around 8 when our tummies started to ask for food. We ate breakfast, and after a couple of hours we had our lunch, changed into our formal attires, and did a final rehearsal. Around 11, we head to our university and wait for our turn to present our study.

Let us skip time, the proposal was successful; cheers were heard in every corner of the room as we all celebrated for each success we had. Our hard work had paid off; we patted each other’s shoulders and went for a hug. Our long day has ended, and we all went on our way home.

Working on academic research is one of the most challenging parts students encounter in their studies, but having my girls as my groupmates made it easier for me. I just love how we all click together, how we pour the same level of dedication into doing our study. We offer emotional support to each other as we suffer together at times in the process, haha. Since the start, we have all been each other’s constant research buddy, and it is so beautiful to see how far we’ve reached. The study has been defended and a few more steps left until we wrap everything up.

Having the right people beside you really makes the hardest day a better one!