LPMHS BATCH 76
Truth be told, we actually only spent a minuscule period of four years together – far too short to even build a career on. And yet, it remains inexplicable what enormous joy reunion brings to a batch of high school graduates who took center stage a month short of summer nearly three decades ago! Tayo yun!
Trotting away from the 1976 arena, we have made lives distinct and separate from the pony-tailed giggly girls and croaking-like-toad boisterous boys we once were. Some of us have climbed up corporate ladders and are now ensconced as prime movers in top 100 corporations. Some of us have seen and explored the world far beyond the boundaries of Las Piñas. Some of us have boldly marched towards the independence of personal businesses, notwithstanding personal losses and gains. Some of us may have even dipped their toes into the murky waters of politics. And some of us, for lack of rhyme and reason, have chosen to sit by and watch the others shine.
Many have raised their own families, bringing forth offspring that will ensure continuity and longevity of surnames. Many have fallen in and crashed out of love. Some have chosen to live outside of marital commitments and are absolutely fulfilled. And a few have had the misfortune of mismatched partnerships.
Some have passed away and left legacies of goodwill. Some departed unnoticed and without fanfare. Some dreamed of success and became successful. Some looked at dreams from a distance and remained daydreamers. Some fought and won battles. Some won even without putting up a fight. Some just lost.
We have met people – an assortment of them. Friends. Lovers. Partners. Idols. Colleagues. Bosses. Subordinates. People who we came to know and appreciated beyond the parade grounds of our Alma Mater. People who we shared our dreams with long after our juvenile years have passed. People who we have been adults with. And like it or not, the way we think, speak, and operate have been either blown up or whittled down not only by our own capacity to use our God-given faculties but also our day-to-day interaction and association with them.
Which is why it is both baffling and heartwarming that the reunion of our almost-fossilized species can ignite such coziness and teen-aged spontaneity. In view of what had been our multi-faceted inter-personal relationships with multitude of people outside of our “fences”, what is it about our high school friendship that draws us back to relive times past? A lot of people attest to this one truth: the best daw ang high school times! Will anyone dare contest that?
High school ushered us into a world of transformation. A world of many firsts. We snaked out of the child’s skin and put on the wolf-like countenance of an adult, albeit, a bit too abruptly and impatiently. We were young but we wanted to act old. We thought we were wise but we actually knew nothing. We tried to outsmart our elders but always proved ourselves inexperienced. We were passionate in our actions and speech even if we lacked wisdom and commitment. We wanted to be heard but oftentimes refused to listen. We had no money but we had fun! Happiness had no price tag back then!
We learned to bond and tasted the sweetness of developing unions with like-minded rascals. We won’t forget the Tropang Gutom of yore and its notoriety and mischief. We were tickled pink when hearts gushed and eyes oozed at the sight of a secretly-adored crush. We won’t forget how many girls swooned every time Robert Montenegro passed by. We liked being treated and respected as equal by more experienced people who inspired us and made us look forward expectantly towards adulthood. We won’t forget afternoons at Ka Pony’s, Liza’s and Nene’s booths as we munched left-over banana-Qs and buco juice. We discovered the value of money and the sadness of its scarcity. We won’t forget how we scrounged extra allowances from each other’s pockets for projects that needed doing and for social gatherings that needed attending.
We were taught grammar, literature, science and math. We got confused with geometric formulas, trigonometric sines and cosines, and simple algebra. We got even more confused with the agreement between subject and predicate and the difference between conjunctions and prepositions. We were bored with Shakespearian sonnets and pored over Gregorio Zaide’s Philippine history notes, unquestioningly. We first heard of Nick Joaquin, a.k.a. Quijano de Manila and were thrilled with Edgar Allan Poe’s Cask of Amontillado. We read Old English classics like Beowulf but did not pay attention to Jose Rizal’s Crisostomo Ibarra in Noli Me Tangere and Simoun in El Filibusterismo because nobody explained to us the significance of such literary masterpieces. We shone and stole the show in military competitions even if we were not as disciplined as our mentors had hoped for us to be. We were competitive. We were carefree.
High school did not teach us the Absolutes of life – there is nothing absolute in the first place, save God. The academics made us literate, but did not teach us who we were and who we will be. It did not teach us everything we needed to know about life either; in fact, it taught us a lot of things we did not need in actual life. But what it did was prepare us for the challenges ahead. It wove us into the roots of our personhood. It directed us into the Act 1, Scene 1 of exploring ourselves and the endless possibilities that lay ahead. It offered us myriad of choices and preferences. It removed all barricades that boxed us within imposed limitations. It opened our eyes to the kaleidoscopic spectrum of adulthood just around the bend. We were boundless. We were free.
Could these then, be the reasons why excitement spring in the air every time we meet? Why we never seem to get tired of each other’s company? Could it be that we gain comfort seeing our lives vicariously mirrored through the lives of each batch mate? How, for better or worse, we are able to measure the distance we’ve ran and the peaks we’ve climbed through the accomplishments and failures of others? Could it also be that being together transports us back to that magical once-upon-a-time when our world was a little younger and mounting bills, career moves, broken relationships were all but distant nightmares? Where we, for the briefest of time, forget the gloomy responsibilities of adulthood and relive the youthful vitality of adolescent pleasures yet again?
Truth be told? I honestly do not know.
Trotting away from the 1976 arena, we have made lives distinct and separate from the pony-tailed giggly girls and croaking-like-toad boisterous boys we once were. Some of us have climbed up corporate ladders and are now ensconced as prime movers in top 100 corporations. Some of us have seen and explored the world far beyond the boundaries of Las Piñas. Some of us have boldly marched towards the independence of personal businesses, notwithstanding personal losses and gains. Some of us may have even dipped their toes into the murky waters of politics. And some of us, for lack of rhyme and reason, have chosen to sit by and watch the others shine.
Many have raised their own families, bringing forth offspring that will ensure continuity and longevity of surnames. Many have fallen in and crashed out of love. Some have chosen to live outside of marital commitments and are absolutely fulfilled. And a few have had the misfortune of mismatched partnerships.
Some have passed away and left legacies of goodwill. Some departed unnoticed and without fanfare. Some dreamed of success and became successful. Some looked at dreams from a distance and remained daydreamers. Some fought and won battles. Some won even without putting up a fight. Some just lost.
We have met people – an assortment of them. Friends. Lovers. Partners. Idols. Colleagues. Bosses. Subordinates. People who we came to know and appreciated beyond the parade grounds of our Alma Mater. People who we shared our dreams with long after our juvenile years have passed. People who we have been adults with. And like it or not, the way we think, speak, and operate have been either blown up or whittled down not only by our own capacity to use our God-given faculties but also our day-to-day interaction and association with them.
Which is why it is both baffling and heartwarming that the reunion of our almost-fossilized species can ignite such coziness and teen-aged spontaneity. In view of what had been our multi-faceted inter-personal relationships with multitude of people outside of our “fences”, what is it about our high school friendship that draws us back to relive times past? A lot of people attest to this one truth: the best daw ang high school times! Will anyone dare contest that?
High school ushered us into a world of transformation. A world of many firsts. We snaked out of the child’s skin and put on the wolf-like countenance of an adult, albeit, a bit too abruptly and impatiently. We were young but we wanted to act old. We thought we were wise but we actually knew nothing. We tried to outsmart our elders but always proved ourselves inexperienced. We were passionate in our actions and speech even if we lacked wisdom and commitment. We wanted to be heard but oftentimes refused to listen. We had no money but we had fun! Happiness had no price tag back then!
We learned to bond and tasted the sweetness of developing unions with like-minded rascals. We won’t forget the Tropang Gutom of yore and its notoriety and mischief. We were tickled pink when hearts gushed and eyes oozed at the sight of a secretly-adored crush. We won’t forget how many girls swooned every time Robert Montenegro passed by. We liked being treated and respected as equal by more experienced people who inspired us and made us look forward expectantly towards adulthood. We won’t forget afternoons at Ka Pony’s, Liza’s and Nene’s booths as we munched left-over banana-Qs and buco juice. We discovered the value of money and the sadness of its scarcity. We won’t forget how we scrounged extra allowances from each other’s pockets for projects that needed doing and for social gatherings that needed attending.
We were taught grammar, literature, science and math. We got confused with geometric formulas, trigonometric sines and cosines, and simple algebra. We got even more confused with the agreement between subject and predicate and the difference between conjunctions and prepositions. We were bored with Shakespearian sonnets and pored over Gregorio Zaide’s Philippine history notes, unquestioningly. We first heard of Nick Joaquin, a.k.a. Quijano de Manila and were thrilled with Edgar Allan Poe’s Cask of Amontillado. We read Old English classics like Beowulf but did not pay attention to Jose Rizal’s Crisostomo Ibarra in Noli Me Tangere and Simoun in El Filibusterismo because nobody explained to us the significance of such literary masterpieces. We shone and stole the show in military competitions even if we were not as disciplined as our mentors had hoped for us to be. We were competitive. We were carefree.
High school did not teach us the Absolutes of life – there is nothing absolute in the first place, save God. The academics made us literate, but did not teach us who we were and who we will be. It did not teach us everything we needed to know about life either; in fact, it taught us a lot of things we did not need in actual life. But what it did was prepare us for the challenges ahead. It wove us into the roots of our personhood. It directed us into the Act 1, Scene 1 of exploring ourselves and the endless possibilities that lay ahead. It offered us myriad of choices and preferences. It removed all barricades that boxed us within imposed limitations. It opened our eyes to the kaleidoscopic spectrum of adulthood just around the bend. We were boundless. We were free.
Could these then, be the reasons why excitement spring in the air every time we meet? Why we never seem to get tired of each other’s company? Could it be that we gain comfort seeing our lives vicariously mirrored through the lives of each batch mate? How, for better or worse, we are able to measure the distance we’ve ran and the peaks we’ve climbed through the accomplishments and failures of others? Could it also be that being together transports us back to that magical once-upon-a-time when our world was a little younger and mounting bills, career moves, broken relationships were all but distant nightmares? Where we, for the briefest of time, forget the gloomy responsibilities of adulthood and relive the youthful vitality of adolescent pleasures yet again?
Truth be told? I honestly do not know.
posted by joeylgarcia at 4:05 PM
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