This time also gave my high school friends and I the time to gather and hang out. Yes, just like the old times. Siopy, Rish, Cams and Marou, who are my high school buddies that I usually go out with, and I hanged out at Siopy’s place. Actually, we never had planned to do anything. Like, say, watch a movie or play Scrabble. We just, plainly, talked and talked. About anything worth babbling about, the past sem (or even year) that we led different lives. There were no uncomfortable silences. Just loads and loads of funny stories to tell.
Cams related her stories of what’s its like to be studying in a trimester school, which also happens to be tagged as a school for the rich and the dumb, which she is not. Marou also recounts her funny moments at school and never fails to recount the fun high school times, as well. Rish quietly smiles at all our stories, and shyly tries to evade our teases about her high school boyfriend. While Siopy, the funniest of the bunch, told funny stories that are bentang benta. Like, how her classmates would react after hearing an unusual English word or phrase. They would shout “Nose bleed” and pretend to be having a true nose bleed, but more exaggerated.
And while we were talking, and I also realized this much later, I realized that I miss high school. Terribly. When I was in high school, I wanted to graduate agad because of many things like a lousy teacher and a craving for a independent life, which was to be attained in college. I hated, sometimes, the closeness I had with my batchmates, friends, schoolmates, and teachers, because they sort of, I felt, inhibit me from doing what I really wanted to do. And that was enjoy life, by not studying hard, and being with friends more. A lot was expected of me then because everyone knew what I was capable of doing. And one, just one, slip-up, like a failed test or a misconduct, would illicit strange stares and tons of irritating questions like, “Anong nangyari sa’yo?” or “Ba’t ka naging ganyan?” so when I got to college, I was so happy. And high school seemed to be a far memory.
But as I had a talk with my friends (whom I miss terribly) I realized that high school is, still, something. It made me what I am today, I realized. Many things are uncomparable and high school really means a lot to everyone who went through it. And realizing these things made me realize, again, that there are many things in high school that is worth missing.
The companionship. Yes, I admit, I never had such a close bonding with anyone aside from my high school friends (the four mentioned above and others, too). We can talk of anything under the sun without absurd looks and reactions. We can make fun of anything, especially of one another, and still no one carries a grudge or bad feeling. We can, I can safely say, look foolish in front of each other, and still be comfortable afterwards.
The lakads. In college, people meet because of one common goal, and that is to study. In high school, we met because we basically from the same part of the town. The after-school gala and “practices” always bring fond memories of sadness, shame, fear, and most of all, happiness. The lakads, I may say, were simpler, cheaper, and more fun, then than now. Why? Maybe it’s true that simple things give the best experiences, and fondest memories. Nothing beats lying on a heap of dried coconut leaves (which we used as skirt costumes, by the way, for one Foundation Day presentation in 2nd year) on a cool breezy night looking at the stars, and the moon. Sounds cheesy and romantic. But who cares? I was with my good friends (Kim and others).
The asarans. What is high school life without the asarans and kantiyawans? Incomplete, that is. In high school, I experienced this so much that, in our batch, teasing was an inevitable and an essential part of our closeness. We were so comfortable with each other that naming each one according to one’s faults or funny attitudes was considered okay. We were so diverse, in aliases, that everyone can be named after someone or something that no repetitions were necessary. Someone was named “Frog” for his cute and chubby double chin. A “Pagong” for her slow movements, and the shape of her head’s likeness with a turtles. A rat (or was it mice?) for his protruding front teeth and because someone also had the same features, he was named the “Rabbit.” So you think we were all animals, think again. There were also a “Pikit” or can be also called “Instik” or “Tulog” because of his chinky, and almost, slit-like eyes. Yet, that guy has a dark complexion. Talk about a Chinese Negro. One was called “Stick” for his unusual thinness. And because someone also had the same features, the other was named “Kalansay.” If I ranted on every pang-asar we had back in high school, this post would be as long as I can imagine. Sticks break bones; names supposedly break spirits. Not with us. We used jokes, teasing and insults so commonly (so ordinarily) that the edge, the stigma, the hurt slowly vanished. It is because of this background we grew up in why each one of us is strong.
So to sum this all up, I can say that I still miss high school. That these posts, which are results of my mood swings and nostalgic moments, would be present in my blog. Always. And I would agree without hesitation to experience high school again.
But I will also say that, sometimes, change is inevitable. So college is still a good thing. Because I learned a lot, in and out of the classroom. Things that I know I can’t learn in high school.
But also there are things that college fails to have, and high school remains to be the best at. This is when I became and developed into who I am now (although I am still improving as a person) and this is the time when I set my boundaries, limitations, views, priorities, values, criteria, ideal qualities in guys and friends, and everything in between. The friends that I have, or had, in high school are still the people who know me the best, and can describe me in the best way a person, other than me, can.
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