The Steep and Narrow Road
by Oliver Carlos
One day, my Dad and I drove around the UPLB campus. We went up the upper campus or what most people call the Forestry campus. He told stories of how UPLB looked like when he was a student in the late 1960s. He took up BS Forestry in the said university.
May Dad narrated that there were lots of buildings that were moved around by the university. The offices that I see today were in a different location 60 years ago. One of them is my birthplace, the university hospital, which most people know as Infirmary.
The modern Infirmary building wasn’t there yet at its present site on top of the hill. The original Infirmary is the present-day Department of Military Science and Training (DMST) building near Baker Hall.
Another interesting revelation is about the original Administration Building. It used to sit at the present site of the Main Library. The piece of land where the current admin building is located was just a vacant lot in the 1960s.
My Dad also recalled that there was just one road leading to the Forestry campus, and that’s the road from the International House (IH) to the present-day Infirmary building. Furthermore, the Narra Bridge which is another route that leads to Forestry, was not yet existing at that time. That is the bridge behind the Main Library.
But what surprised me the most was what he said about that old road going up to Infirmary. He said it looked so different from the original road. In the 1960s, that road was narrow and had a very difficult steep slope. Driving up the road was engine-straining, while driving downhill was dangerously speedy, one’s brakes must be in tip-top condition. Now, the road is a lot wider, and the slope isn’t very inclined anymore, and so driving is safer these days.
I got curious about this road, so I sought out multiple sources to confirm what my Dad said. The old folks I asked told me the same thing. The Forestry road was indeed steep and narrow in the old days.
My Dad said that he had fond memories of the Forestry road. He reminisced his college days when he and his friends would stroll down that road to have some entertainment in Grove or Crossing Los Banos. Those places were considered “walking distance” by UPLB people in the 1960s. There weren’t too many jeepneys yet then, so Forestry students and dwellers would just walk down that road. Jeepneys then were short, half the length of what we see today, he added. They weren’t very wide too. That probably explains why the old road wasn’t very wide.
In the next years, the campus engineers needed to re-design the road to make the ascent easier. The road needed to be adjusted to the changing times. More and more vehicles came along, and the Forestry road became busier than ever. The design of jeepneys and cars also became wider as the years went on.
In life, re-designing or re-coursing of our usual life roads happens occasionally too. These can be drastic and huge changes in your career, school, address, family budget, personal health, and lifestyle. Sometimes it’s by choice, but sometimes, we are just forced into it by circumstances beyond our control.
The Bible likens this to the flattening of hills and mountains. These large natural structures have been standing there for ages. They may symbolize what we used to see existing for a long time that may someday be altered or even taken away from our sight. We read in Isaiah 54:10 (NLV):
“For the mountains may depart and the hills disappear, but my kindness shall not leave you. My promise of peace for you will never be broken, says the Lord who has mercy upon you.”
God has his own version of a bulldozer that he sometimes uses to flatten the mountains of our lives. If he wants to change the earth’s landscape, or the world’s lifestyle, or the circumstances around us, it’s his call. You may ask, “Why Lord? I’m already ok with my usual daily life?”
Well, just like the Forestry road, our lives need some re-designing for our own good. We just need to trust God with what he is doing. Later, we will see the beauty of the new slope and width he has done in our life road.
