--Old Friends, Real Friends.

Friends are treasure they say and most of the real ones stay regardless of distance and time. At work, I have gained many acquaintances,or from random places and events, but none could ever replace the way you are treated by you old friends, especially those hailed from where you grow up, such as high school and elementary classmates. They have become considerably friends already to me. When FB came to surface and helped mitigate the cost on communication or at least connect back to people you never know where they are, my classmates decided to set up a mini-reunion for those who are based in Manila. While the rest of the '93 tertiary population have dominantly stayed at the province, it was more difficult to keep in touch and meet more often. I have not gone home since 2005 and whenever they meet there, I am not able to attend. At first I was really excited; in fact I plotted my vacation leave to give way to this event, and was dismayed that some couldn't come.



SO we met. Some of those who positively agreed that they were coming didn’t show up. I was sort of disgusted to their level of maturity in terms of keeping up to schedules, although this doesn't make them a bad person. They maybe a little tied up probably, or at least. We were eight all in all. The dinner at Gerry's Grill was sumptuous and we ate while we were reminiscing the high school fun. Ley was the most notorious amongst us, but not the whole batch. He was fun and not harmful. Just plain silly. I was able to catch up with a lot of things going on at the province. From the deceased classmates and one of our good English teacher who passed away too, .down to those who are still living (of course) and how they are able to survive the life at home. Simple and laid back. Some of them have started families already with five or so kids, which is unimaginable to have at this kind of economical status. It's their choice though. It's just that I feel having 6 kids may not be ideal now. I was thinking, how could I ever give them equal attention, good education and decent living without having to work my ass hard. After the dinner, we stopped by at Starbucks, to continue catching up. We had pictures taken to be posted on FB sometime after. Mano, our high school valedictorian is now married to her long time boy friend, who happened to be my college schoolmate, is working in Singapore. They are still trying to work out having a baby. Same thing with Lala and Roden, who has been married for one year now. They are not high school sweethearts but their relationship developed also in one of our reunion back in '05. Roden is a seaman, who works out of the country every 7 months, while Lala, is working at one of the biggest chain of restaurants. Jasmine is in an advertising company, Maximille, a CPA, who now manages 5 big companies in Makati. Lolita, a homemaker of two kids, with same ages as mine, and is married to a seaman too.

As a personal choice, I don't like the idea of having a husband who works overseas who comes home and spend time only with me and my kids for less than two months and leave again. It isn't ideal for me. Marriage is supposed to be a journey of two people who are initially bonded with love and build a family by guiding their little kids at home. Although this is a matter of choice, I'm just thinking how they go through their lives growing and fighting survival alone. Aren't they supposed to be together through thick and thin? Anyway, the night recessed past midnight after sipping latte's and frappucino,with banoffi pie on the sides. I skipped counting calories for a while. We've gone through a lot of things, many became succesful on their own field but nothing changed the fun and laughter’s we both shared in the past.Whatever we have reached is beyond the discussion regardless if some have settled their own lives the simplest way possible. What matters is that we haven't changed the ideals and the way we were mold as an individual while in adolescent stage. And so we're planning another meeting in a distant future, Im excited.

Below are the faces.=)



{Me}, Mano, Maximille, Jasmin, Lolit, Lala, Roden and Ley (taking picture)



From left: Mano,{me}. Lolit



Laugh like there's no tomorrow.



when the night is through..