A New, Clean Slate

1st semester has officially ended, as I sweaty registered myself in for the 2nd semester of College of Liberal Arts. It’s a fulfilling chapter for me as a student, because through it I knew I can survive in college. On the flipside, it was difficult because starting another semester in college is a stepping stone, meaning, things would be much difficult and challenging. As I write this, my phone keeps vibrating on the class card-cluttered desk, which means it is being bombarded with messages from my block mates. But this time the messages isn’t the usual “ano homework?” nor the “good morning!” messages. They were messages of “thank you”, “sorry” and “I’ll miss you.” On the next days, we won’t be laughing at the same jokes anymore, nor can we share the same table for lunch because for the next semester, we won’t be in the same block again. We were re-sectioned according to our Grade Weighted Average (GWA). Being in one of the top classes doesn’t make me feel happy at all, because it is difficult to suddenly withdraw classmates-turned-friends from the daily scene of going to school. I will really miss the joke shows and “okray” sessions, and our favorite past time taking stolen pictures of drooling classmates and sleepyheads. But learning and fun doesn’t stop there. That is the reality and it has to be done. I must move on. My world doesn’t rotate by a single picture; it rotates because of a reason. And that reason must be known, that is why it has to be learned. But as I move on, I have with me memories and hopes that the friends I knew will be the same friends I’ll be meeting in the crossroads for the next years. I will truly miss my block mates, specially “kabaklaan” (it’s what our block mates call our group, because we mainly call each other bak or bakla, even if we have straight guy/s (you know what I mean, mga bak) in the group) Chai Retorta, Sarah Rosales, Jam Camaclang, Mark Quinto, Chiela Ramos, Joanna Perez, Alyssa Salanguit and Mike Timonera, if you’re reading this, ILY, mga bak!

This is just the beginning. At certain points in college, we’ll have to let go of friends and make new ones. But that doesn’t mean replacing friends to new ones. Remember that Soc. Sci line? “Man is a social animal.” The magic is adding more friends, keeping them, and loving them. It is just a question of belief and a matter of change. After all, we’ll be in the same school breathing the same air, learning the same ideals, and whining about the same Math “Happy” quizzes. After those eight semesters, we will be born to a bigger world which demands greater things from us, till we forget old friends, make new ones, and retrieve old friends from the hollows of forget. It’s not yet a goodbye for us, Block 29.