CHSB Batch 94

Kita sa Una…

by Ladylou: hot mama cool blogger (esey!)

Eighteen years is too long a time to encapsulate in one blink; but it seemed like it was just yesterday when we last saw each other. When I saw my high school batch mates today, everything seemed to be just like one puff of short breath ago. I’ve always thought of it being totally mushy saying this, but my heart skipped a tad seeing those familiar faces and being assured of warm acceptance among this group of people who has been with me since pre-rebond times and during acne infested phases of my silly little life.

We were Batch 94. Since it was a public school, no pressure on latest brands of clothes then, no pressure to be seen hitting places like McDonalds or Shakey’s. I had shirts from Calvin Klein and Benetton, watch from Esprit and Dolce and Gabbana jeans and since they were just gifts from relatives, even myself didn’t bloody know their names. Who cares, keverrr. We all loved the labakara from Penshoppe. And if you were wearing Giordano, dina ma reach. Bwahahahaah. Ew.

We were happy with outings in Jasaan, Tin-ao or in Acuna.  The outing we had in Impalutao was one crazy high school event I loved to the max. We did not have our meals catered. We cooked them. We bought fresh catch from Puerto and grill them good. We would make kinikaw or sinugbang isda. Wala’y fastfood, ti. Lukdo ug basket paingon sa dagat; or bukid?

We were not the mall people. We did not do malling. We go to mall with our friends on special occasions. If we ever go there, we would get the cheapest jolly meal, eat and go. Oh no. At times, won’t even get inside Jollibee, pamasahe nalang bya pauli nabilin, mamokung na pod lugar? We were contented with the stuff from the school canteen and the occasional sliced manggang hilaw and ginanggang saging outside the school premise.

We were not keen on movie theaters either. The home theater which was composed of old betamax and rented poorly-taped movie flicks were perfectly fine; and of course the boys preferred the porn over the more sensible ones. Hahahaha. I know one hilarious story about this; but it will entail a totally different blog to this title: CAUGHT LICKING THE TV SCREEN. LOL! Maybe not. I need to be paid to make that Blog; because I know its gonna sell like pancakes. Hahahahahah. That was high school. The flavor is only better when it stays there.  

We did not have to lease action movies. Our classmates who staged unending rambles provided the whole thing. They smashed each other’s faces on stage during our senior prom; literally. The poor dignitaries on stage squirmed horrified. But we all enjoyed the show.  

And texting? Hah! Dili man gani uso ang landnine! LOL! When you say we meet at 4:30 sa “bamboo”, you say yes, not, text-text lang tah. Artemio sent letters to Myra. Pasaylua nalang jud ang grammar lugar, but letters were sent for free. We can just write it down to our hearts content, no need for wifi so we can email or leave a PM on FB. There were no technologies, most of the boys plucked their guitars and sang a song from White Lion like over a hundred times during the day. We dreamed of our crushes at the wake of day and we scribble their names in our notebooks at night. You can’t text them. There was no cellphone. Ouch.

We did not have tutors. We studied to the wake of night. We make sample test reviewers ourselves. And how we love the question and answer drill we make for ourselves before any exams or quizzes. There were no tutors coming into our houses to have them study. My tutor was my father. He was so strict and so intelligent but didn’t know to teach me Maths. I cried half the time I study with him. The result was, I had 75’s on all Math subjects I had at Xavier. And of course we cheated. Gosh. Not all the time, but I definitely cheated in Physics just to make sure there were numbers (or letters) flying in my answer key. Once I was seated beside Eugene Logronio who was so frikkin’ good in almost everything. Ang Busoy kay di man pa kopyahon. Enimil. Nihilak ko after sa quiz and I didn’t talk to the dork the whole afternoon.

We lead simple lives then. I cannot begin to imagine how we have fared through such simplicity. Although there was no cellphone nor internet for this sinful convenience, life then was not as this complicated. Solve nas’ Botchoy (Php 00.50) and ayshoter (Php 1.00) at recess.

In this point of our lives, we all have gone through different processes. We survived college, built (or dismantled) our own families, had (or did not have) children. We worked excruciatingly for our careers to take off. Build our business from sweat and blood. We may have built our names and others remained anonymous; but when we are with the people in our high school, we would know how they comprise irreplaceable pieces of our life’s puzzle. The experiences we have shared with them paved way for the very kind of life we have chosen to live and the very person we are now. How? Taas na na kaau na blog. All I know is when I am with you, I am home.

LRL. Lahi ra jud.