MEComposing

If I'm not wrong, yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of my high school graduation.

High School. Right now, am holding a scrapbook of sorts which I had some friends right dedications/letters on (that kinda thing was BIG back then), with most of the poems I wrote back then(i still cannot help but grieve that i've lost my only copies of my more serious and excellent poems written during that period... the one about war and my answer to that famous shepherd love poem), and containing some of the pictures from that time. Let me see, I had crushes on Francis Neil Labonete (1st year) and Adrian Pagulayan (4th year) and Victor Alim (3rd year). I hope they didn't turn out to be big-time jerks and deadbeat fathers.

I no longer have curly hair (i've always had straight hair, but I had a perm in my 3rd year), I'm no longer a Girl Scout even if I still go camping and can now read trail signs... I have not even maintained correspondence with my batchmates (except w/ my bestfriend Lota, that is... who I don't really much of). Heard that Jaye has gotten married already...

Some of my teachers have already passed away. Most have left Paco Catholic School for greener pastures (yes, am a product of a Catholic School... ). I don't think I even know my way around that school anymore, its grounds have changed, buildings have been added, educational standards have degenerated (I know because my sister graduated from there and I'd usually find out about just how incompetent her teachers are) and its fees have risen to exorbitant proportions. Well, exorbitant for us middle-income families anyway.

But I did have a lot of good times then. And really cool barkadas. And I also hurt a lot then. Whoever didn't have a turbulent time during adolescence anyway?

And did I grow up? Am I the person I dreamed of becoming then? Will the old me like the present me? What dreams have I given up on? What have I really accomplished after ten years of being set free from the protective and innocent walls of my high school?