KINDLE HIGH SCHOOL

Wella, one of my BFFs or bestfriends forevah in high school suddenly messaged us other BFFs that we should meet somewhere in Manila Bay since her American Navy ship is docking by Manila and that she will spend overnight here with the family. This girl has been away for years and an overnight thing in Manila is as precious as butanding sightings in Donsol. Now our THING meant calling up people whom i had the best time of my life in high school. And THINGS like those are meant to be relished not in Manila Bay but in Ciudad Real in SJDM Bulacan. Ciudad Real is like our tambayan back then.

Of course, we love digging up old and new bones in our high school closets. We talked about who got married, who got pregnant, who got together, who turned ugly, who turned  beautiful, who was kicked out from her pedestal and even who died from our batchmates. I never had an earthshaking presence in high school nor our group (Wella, Aineegooh, Blessie, Jange etc.) We were just on the sidelines observing, minding our own businesses and popping our zits. Yeah, we're not on the popular group and we don't have pedestals heck we were the dust on the pedestals--- haha! But when i look at all of us and what we have become, the statement ' Look at us now! ' is what best describes the moment. I guess it is a sweet revenge that we turned out ok after all even without the immature public clamoring for us 10 years ago. 

Wella's brother fondly recalled that i walked fast with my eyebrows almost always meeting and dishiveled hair. He actually summed it up with a question: Ate, galit pa ba sa mundo si Ate Geng? Oh yes I was back then but not like Janeane Garofalo. Going thru our high school pictures, I noticed that we were always stooping low, posing with a smirk and looking blank while receiving some award. Wella said that i never smiled in high school even in pictures. I don't know why. Raging hormones? Self-pity? Self-irritation? Mother issues? Bad skin, hair and teeth? Baby fat? Body odor? Perhaps all of the above. At least i went through that which i think is so Generation X. Now i know i can smile the sweetest of smiles even with constant bouts of irritation. Smiles are always sweetest when you have had lots of frowns.

Going thru high school is like a chemical experiment. It is where one decides to make the litmus paper turn red or blue or any color that we like. A separation of oil to water. You have never been human if you didn't go thru high school.

Thank God, we still laugh out loud and still have humors that bind us.