MY BEAUTIFUL ‘BUNDOK’ CLASSMATES AND FRIENDS

No words can describe how beautiful it is to see former classmates and friends way back elementary days. It’s been three decades and who would ever think that we would still be seeing each other.

As I looked back, I can’t help but recall the vivid memories of the 70s. As I look around, I realize that we have more in common today than we had back at Makati Elementary called Bundok. We are all eligible for Medicare and soon we all get senior discounts wherever we go. We cannot escape reality, and it’s good.I used to be very interested in a few illustrated KOMIKS, LIWAYWAY family magazine, Aliwan, Holiday Classics, Lagim Komiks and Barbara Cartland and Mills and Boon paperbacks. I remember listening to radio program "Gabi ng Lagim" and then the next day would narrate in details to classmates what the story was. Well my friends forget about it.

Today we are living in the era of Pentium IV, fast food, arthritis, global warming, cloning and mood stabilizers; at last we are coming into the SCI if era of Brave New World or 2009 better late than never.In an anthology of short stories, the best reunions are in dreams or with ghosts. If I believed that, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to see my dear classmates and friends. So I ask myself, why bother? I can’t even find the most rewarding answer to this.Do you remember when...

We dressed up to go to school and girls wore skirts- not jeans,· We bought toys and other stuff at Aling Elo’s store,· We ate nutri bun and sundot kulangot (coco jam in bamboo shoots) during recess. We ran around the huge grass laden campus and would stay at the upper place where the statue of Jose Rizal stood just to play taguan or chinese garter. Lo!We had ten cents to fifty cents as baon.

Time flies. Life is what happens to us while we are busy planning other things. Turn around twice and all of a sudden you realize that there are aching knees and joints. We can plan for tomorrow, but we cannot guarantee that tomorrow will be there for us to enjoy. Let us seize, snatch a bit of time for us to rekindle the wonderful memories we shared. Let us live in the moment, treasure it, savor it, wrap yourself and those you love within it and hold on tight.I just celebrated my 17th year anniversary and it’s awesome. My friendship with you is also my marriage. Most of the things that have happened to me in the past forty seven years were not planned well thought out. Events occurred in rapid sequence, with lots of compromise and adjustments.....still, I know it all worked out for the best.

I wish all of us, time travelers, good health and financial security, without which happiness becomes a struggle. I feel proud to be your classmate and friend. Let us all go home and ponder. What was true at the beginning remains true. This is timeless and priceless. The serenity of the moment that only our eyes can see and feel brings total madness. Then we keep it in our heart until we permanently close our eyes.