There are times when I really ache for the things that used to be. I miss the "stress" of college. It's a lot less serious than actual work stress... It's the kind of stress that I'm willing to do over and over again. I miss the "good times". I miss the memories and the people that come with them.
Every time I read a good book, see a good movie or learn something new, I keep wanting to share it with some of my college friends. I wonder where most of them are now. Are they married? Are they thriving or sinking? Are they still in Philippines or are they somewhere else? Will they still recognize me despite my obesity? Did they change for the better? Or for the worse?
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| A drawing I made more than a decade ago. |
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The backside of the drawing containing the date I drew it and the names of my friends. From top to bottom, left to right: Marichu Montarial, Marilou Lopez, Isabel Catubig, Rachel Ablan, Mailyn Mabbayad, Vincent and Alfred (imaginary friends), Melanie Santos, Eugene (imaginary friend), Cristy Mante, ME, Dennis (imaginary friend), Janet Rellosa, Mary Jane, Shirley Rotoni and Rosemary Nabua. Then, there's the nearest yet farthest - Jerrylou Cernechez. I could walk to her place right now but I don't want to go there just to know that she hasn't come home from work.  I miss the way she giggles whenever she sees "Oni", her ten-year secret crush. She helped me appreciate the simplest joys of life. We would eat at Jollibee when something special came up. We would buy black shirts from tiangge despite her mother's criticism of our fashion statement. We never hated carbonated drinks. We even had a recurring hypothetical situation about us deciding whether to save the guy we most admire or the last bottle of Coke in the world. I miss her resounding laughter that seems to fill the room with her happy, contagious thoughts. I miss sleeping over their house, sitting on their roof top and not caring about anything in the world. We even let the mosquitoes bite us.. We simply talk about our past and wonder what we would be ten years from that time. I was Ryouko... She was Sailor Moon... She's the best of the best. I also miss my group back in the last two years of college. Some call our group "Powerhouse Cast", and "Tropang Nomu" but we never really came up with an official name for our group. It was actually a coalition of separate groups. There were Alpha Females: Ate Rinette and Ate Jen, Alpha Male: Kuya Chad (he will kill me for calling him 'kuya'); the "Resident Pregnant Drunkard", "Buto", Verger, Bessie Basu(rah), the Gigantic Gay Ryan, the Lesbian-Struggling-To-Look-Like-A-Real-Girl Marilou Lopez, and some whose face I will never forget but whose name escaped my coffee-infused brain. That group brought me to the "dark side". I'm happy for it. At least I am no longer so naive and painfully destitute of experience. Despite all the bad influences I got from them, the differences in their views gave me inspiration, new insight and a better point-of-view. They helped crack my 19-year-old safety shell. And since the day I went out of my comfort zone, I bloomed and flourished... In this tapestry of personalities, I was well-woven with two of the most interesting strands: Janice Lubay and Napoleon Nayra. Janice was red, vibrant, warm and perky. She's the life of our trio. She's my exact opposite. Surprisingly, I can stand being alone with her more than Nayra. Whenever, I was alone with him, I couldn't remember a time when we didn't have an awkward silence looming above us. Nayra, "the green one", (we prefer to call him by his surname as it sounds more feminine than Napoleon) was the neutral force of our triad. He was neither too dispirited nor too nice. Among us three, he was the most talented. He might not have known it but I did look up to him for intellectual sustenance.
These are some of the people that I am afraid I have lost on the way to the street called Adulthood. But, someday, I'm sure there's a crossroad somewhere where our paths will meet. |
2 comments:
Miss you, Maela.. Still you are in my heart..
Miles miss u♥️
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