Si Maey, si Bechay at Ako
I am sitting on my living room floor with a boxful of photographs searching for images of Maey, Bechay and myself back in college when we were called Kulasas, when life was simpler and love was intense and the world was a promise. It had been a very long time since we had gotten together. Many reasons have come and gone and somehow re-connecting now, I suppose we are just joyed with the fact that we can renew a friendship from where we left off.
I have no more idea of where and how we started to become friends. Most probably it was in the small office of the school newspaper, the Scholastican where I was doing news, Maey was in Features and Bechay was in Artworks. The blurred beginning however gives way to much clarity of our years together even after we had left school. Love stories, weddings, break-ups and the cycle of our lives kept our lives intertwined like the eternal soap opera.
There is absolutely nothing I can remember about college that didn't have a memory of the three of us. The way we harassed the male AND female professors like typical colegialas, playing hookey at the start of the semester and going off to the mall to watch movies or just hanging out at Tia Maria's and getting drunk at 3 in the afternoon. I remember troubled days that often accompanied the growing up years when running up to our parents for help seemed juvenile and so it seemed that going solo on the burden of love affairs gone wrong or everything else seemed the inevitable. I would find solace on the mezzanine of the school's liberal arts building, in an office that was more often used for hanging out than brainstorming for newspaper editions. And just when you think you would be there alone, either Bechay or Maey would always be there. Like we were somehow connected and drawn to the same place at the same time.
Our concentric circle of friends grew, drawing in other characters in a cast of hundreds that eventually would pass us by year after year. Yet we stayed close. My memories of our friendship include a religious retreat in Baguio where I have a picture of Bechay expertly rolling that sweet-smelling smokes to share amongst 15 roomates. And then when we returned to the final reflection of the night when the nuns made us think back to sad situations with the intent of making us repent and cry, I was peaking on my reaction to my smokes and was giggling hysterically. That was when they swore not to involve me again in anything 'natural' or 'unnatural' in terms of smoking.
Once upon a time I did smoke in their company. I remember buying Marlboro Lights and lighting up now and then inside the Scholastican office. Not much for the thrill of smoking but more for the thrill of going against the rules. I remember the editors and writers of the paper when I was a junior where we marked the end of the schoolyear by bringing in alcolohic beverages into the office and then getting tipsy and literally crawling to our next class on the 4th floor.
I remember how I would accompany Bechay to the faculty room to stalk her favorite prof whom we nicknamed Lucky. As how they were all 'tita' to Nicole and at one time when everyone had her baby picture in their wallet including their boyfriends.
Nicole eventually became Maey's flower girl in her wedding to Pedro. And now that Nicole is almost turning 20, we - Maey, Bechay and I are once again emailing/chatting or talking on the phone. Maey found me on the internet a few months ago while she and Bechay had always stayed in touch. Bechay is now in Canada. Maey has 7 year old Asha and Bechay has 7 year old Alec.
This morning, after chatting with Maey, I dialled Bechay's number and spent the next 45 minutes catching up with her. Despite the more than 10 years that had lapsed since we last spoke to each other it seems it had just been a thick fog that had clouded our bridges. We were the same - the same laughter, the same naughtiness, same Bechay and same me. Whatever reasons we may have had to have somehow pulled apart from each other many years ago, the reasons are now dimmed and the bright sunshine is shining upon our friendship again.
I plan to see Maey in December when I go home and looking forward to kissing Asha and joking with Pedro again. I am sure I will be teased about old love stories but I am also sure it will be a great reunion. For the meantime, I have a reunion much sooner to look forward to - the possibility of meeting up with Bechay in Montreal when I visit next month with my parents.
I went to mass early today and said a special prayer of thanks for the many beautiful memories of my life that I had been fortunate to have had that come rolling back to me when the days seem empty and the search for meaning is once again answered even without a question. Family and old friends who know me well and who love me for what I am... another of life's greatest gifts.
La dolce vita...
I have no more idea of where and how we started to become friends. Most probably it was in the small office of the school newspaper, the Scholastican where I was doing news, Maey was in Features and Bechay was in Artworks. The blurred beginning however gives way to much clarity of our years together even after we had left school. Love stories, weddings, break-ups and the cycle of our lives kept our lives intertwined like the eternal soap opera.
There is absolutely nothing I can remember about college that didn't have a memory of the three of us. The way we harassed the male AND female professors like typical colegialas, playing hookey at the start of the semester and going off to the mall to watch movies or just hanging out at Tia Maria's and getting drunk at 3 in the afternoon. I remember troubled days that often accompanied the growing up years when running up to our parents for help seemed juvenile and so it seemed that going solo on the burden of love affairs gone wrong or everything else seemed the inevitable. I would find solace on the mezzanine of the school's liberal arts building, in an office that was more often used for hanging out than brainstorming for newspaper editions. And just when you think you would be there alone, either Bechay or Maey would always be there. Like we were somehow connected and drawn to the same place at the same time.
Our concentric circle of friends grew, drawing in other characters in a cast of hundreds that eventually would pass us by year after year. Yet we stayed close. My memories of our friendship include a religious retreat in Baguio where I have a picture of Bechay expertly rolling that sweet-smelling smokes to share amongst 15 roomates. And then when we returned to the final reflection of the night when the nuns made us think back to sad situations with the intent of making us repent and cry, I was peaking on my reaction to my smokes and was giggling hysterically. That was when they swore not to involve me again in anything 'natural' or 'unnatural' in terms of smoking.
Once upon a time I did smoke in their company. I remember buying Marlboro Lights and lighting up now and then inside the Scholastican office. Not much for the thrill of smoking but more for the thrill of going against the rules. I remember the editors and writers of the paper when I was a junior where we marked the end of the schoolyear by bringing in alcolohic beverages into the office and then getting tipsy and literally crawling to our next class on the 4th floor.
I remember how I would accompany Bechay to the faculty room to stalk her favorite prof whom we nicknamed Lucky. As how they were all 'tita' to Nicole and at one time when everyone had her baby picture in their wallet including their boyfriends.
Nicole eventually became Maey's flower girl in her wedding to Pedro. And now that Nicole is almost turning 20, we - Maey, Bechay and I are once again emailing/chatting or talking on the phone. Maey found me on the internet a few months ago while she and Bechay had always stayed in touch. Bechay is now in Canada. Maey has 7 year old Asha and Bechay has 7 year old Alec.
This morning, after chatting with Maey, I dialled Bechay's number and spent the next 45 minutes catching up with her. Despite the more than 10 years that had lapsed since we last spoke to each other it seems it had just been a thick fog that had clouded our bridges. We were the same - the same laughter, the same naughtiness, same Bechay and same me. Whatever reasons we may have had to have somehow pulled apart from each other many years ago, the reasons are now dimmed and the bright sunshine is shining upon our friendship again.
I plan to see Maey in December when I go home and looking forward to kissing Asha and joking with Pedro again. I am sure I will be teased about old love stories but I am also sure it will be a great reunion. For the meantime, I have a reunion much sooner to look forward to - the possibility of meeting up with Bechay in Montreal when I visit next month with my parents.
I went to mass early today and said a special prayer of thanks for the many beautiful memories of my life that I had been fortunate to have had that come rolling back to me when the days seem empty and the search for meaning is once again answered even without a question. Family and old friends who know me well and who love me for what I am... another of life's greatest gifts.
La dolce vita...