A student of the University of the Philippines (UP) has created an online furor thanks to her graduation portrait, which throws shade at lazy classmates.
Ciely Mendoza, a broadcast communication major, posted her graduation photo on Twitter last week with the caption in Filipino: “To everyone whom I had to carry.”
It shows Mendoza carrying two garbage bags labeled “groupmates,” referring to unreliable classmates whom she had to work with on school projects.
Para sa mga binuhat ko 🌻 pic.twitter.com/qWY3xsq51g
— Ciely Mendoza (@CielyMendoza) June 20, 2018
The photo has been retweeted more than 11,000 times and has received more than 105,000 likes as of today.
Needless to say, the viral tweet has attracted fans and critics alike.
Wrote one of her former classmates, @jaspursuer, in a mix of Filipino and English: “I’m one of her groupmates in a class.Yes. I am thankful to Ciely, hahaha. It was my last sem when I had 4.0 standing for this P[hysical] E[ducation]. She led us for (sic) our final output, which is a group dance. Thanks to her, I got a sweet 3 and I was able to march last year. Now, I’m an engineer.”
I’m one of her groupmates sa isang class.Yes. I am thankful kay Ciely HAHA. It was my last sem when I had 4.0 standing for this PE. She led us for our final output, which is a group dance. Thanks to her, I got a sweet 3 and I was able to march last year. Ngayon, engineer na ako.
— Jasper Escuro (@JasPursuer) June 21, 2018
User @robsalvador13, however, had some harsh words for Mendoza. He wrote in a mix of Filipino and English: “She’s so full of herself to label [her] groupmates as trash! You’re more trashy with what you did actually. This is not creative. You’re being insensitive.”
Ang epal neto at mayabang para i-label ang groupmates na basura! Mas basura ka sa ginawa mong pag mayabang actually. Hindi nakaka creative at all. Insensitive ka.
— Rob Salvador (@robsalvador13) June 21, 2018
In an e-mail interview with Coconuts Manila, Mendoza said she was “shocked” by how her post became viral. She said, “I didn’t expect that more than a hundred thousand people would be engaging with it.”
She also explained how she thought of the concept: “It was simply to poke fun at all the times I had to ‘carry’ freeloaders in group works throughout my four-year stay in UP.”
“It was my simple way to poke fun at all the stresses my past groupmates have caused me — from the sleepless nights to the extra work I had to put in, on top of everything [that’s] on my plate,” she said. “I simply wanted to channel my prior frustrations with something lighter, something my friends and I can laugh about.”
Touching on tweets by people who appeared offended by her post, she said: “While I don’t agree with some of their claims, it was still pretty insightful just reading through their arguments.”
A quick look at the Twitter thread shows some comments have been deleted, possibly by posters who were offended by Mendoza’s graduation pic.
“There were some tweets that were kind of low-blow for me, very much uncalled for,” she said. “It took me quite some time to just let it (sic) go, and let [other] people continue their discourse with one another. I realized eventually that it was best to steer away from furthering the drama.”
Sounds like a level-headed way to deal with controversy.
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