Well, I didn’t cry a while ago. Thankfully. It was a little difficult to overcome the feeling of immense happiness that high school is over (in a good sense). Parang ngayon lang, habang nagtatype ako ng entry ko ngayong gabi ko nararamdaman ‘yung lungkot na magkakahiwalay-hiwalay na kami.

Anyway, before this gets out of hand…

Graduation Ceremonies

This time, ‘di na ‘ko late for the processional. The great fulfillment of wearing a graduation toga while marching with your classmates among tens of flashing lights per second along the path was fantastic. I felt so proud of myself and of my fellow classmates and batchmates. That was it, we were graduating from high school, finally.

So the graduation ceremonies commenced, and all the formalities were executed. I got my second honors medal, I got my diploma. Then we all sang the school hymn at the end. I’ve never sang the song with as much passion as I had tonight. The batch was singing the song in great chorus. Muntik na ‘ko maiyak kasi ‘yung tunog ng marching band nagpapaalala sa ‘kin sa prusisyon ng patay. I can’t really describe the feeling well. I felt really happy that high school is over, and yet really sad that I’m straying away from the path most of my classmates for four years are going to take in Ateneo college. Oh well.

I’ll miss 4-O!! Walang kalimutan ‘to ah! (Mag-reunion na tayo next month, haha).

Every time we get together for a group picture, we’d always have to stay put with our smiles for more than a minute of continuous flashes of camera lights. Haha, feeling namin talaga para kaming mga celebrities!

Oh, also, we are all praying for a successful outcome of one of our classmates’ mom’s dangerous (even fatal) head surgery tomorrow. PLEASE pray for her too. Our classmate had to miss our graduation ceremonies tonight. God bless their family in the coming days, whatever the outcome may be. CINCO! The trauma must be horrible right now *hug*.

Post-Graduation Dinner

After the graduation ceremonies, we went off to Wan Chai Tea House along Congressional Ave. in Quezon City.

OKAY. I did admit I said that I love Chinese food. But gee, we don’t have to overdo it!! I’m starting to get sick of Chinese food. Whenever we eat with relatives these past few months, we’ve always been going to Chinese restaurants. I’m turning Chinese already! STOP!

Anyway, so my godparents were there. And some of our relatives from Bulacan and Cavite were there too. Nothing much. I just continued bloating myself up.

EDIT (March 30, 2004, 17:20): Full-size pictures can be viewed in one of my zorpia albums

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I’m kind of bloated. There has been eating gatherings all graduation day. There was a class post-baccalaureate mass breakfast at school in the morning, then we ate with my relatives from Cavite for lunch, then we had dinner with my parents’ other friends and our relatives from Bulacan.

Baccalaureate Mass & Breakfast

I got scolded by one of the assistant principals because I was late for the processional, and I unintentionally disrupted the other classes’ lines. Oh well. Naflatan kasi kami eh. (Si Mama, na-flat ‘yung gulong ng wheelchair n’ya).

The mass was the usual school mass. But strangely, it didn’t feel as long and drudging as it actually was.

After the mass was the breakfast with the class. I’m always uneasy when my parents are present in class ocassions. I always tend to behave and not act like myself for some reason.

Pre-Graduation Lunch

We had lunch with our relatives from Amadeo at Shangri-La along Times St. in Quezon City. Okay… Chinese food again. My aunts and uncle were there. Lolo and her sisters were there too. As usual, he kept crying. He’s funny.

(Parehas kami ng suot ng mga waiters…)

My mom bought this Gordon Height thing for my younger brother. It’s a device you wear on your feet that vibrates once turned on. It’s supposed to trigger the release of more growth hormones from the pituitary glands based on the idea of reflexology. It sounds silly and quite farfetched from being effective, but who knows? Haha. I’m trying it myself.

So, I confirmed my slot for UP a couple of days ago. How boring. I wanted to do all those running and waiting in line. (It’s fun, ‘di ba J-boy?)

Ooh, I also found our old stash of National Geographic magazines. I was reading some of them this morning. I suddenly got re-interested in geography and explorations. (Hah, I once knew all the world capitals, and I could still locate any country in the world map within three seconds. Haha, sorry mayabang ako minsan). We stopped our subscription six years ago, so I subscribed again online (I finally got to use my credit card). Any of you out there willing to sell some old issues?

I once submitted a debate essay very similar to this column (March 26, 2004, Philippine Daily Inquirer) by Conrado de Quiros to our staunch GMA-supporter English teacher. I got an F. I looked at the paper and what was supposed to be a just adjudication on her part appeared like an opposition whipping all my arguments. She even introduced new arguments to counter mine. Uh, what the hell? Okay, so maybe she’s right. But she doesn’t normally do that! I mean… scrutinizing our essays. I have submitted (so did my classmates) more unsatisfactory and extremely fallacious essays and still get A’s. She’s using her bias again! I admit I might have not taken the essay seriously and my arguments may have not been well-constructed. But so where the countless of other arguments used in papers she gave A’s! We all have experienced submitting slipshod essays, some even recycled essays, to her, and still get A’s. This was selective scrutiny! I should’ve known better than submitting something like that. We all knew long before-hand that our English teacher implored biases on checking our compositions. She doesn’t even add scores up. Parang, she reads, correct grammars and then she’ll just think up a score on her head and give it. No calculations whatsoever to explain why we got the scores she thinks we deserve.

I didn’t complain anymore because it’d be futile (and because yes, still, my arguments were not well-constructed). We all know that. Besides, I like my English teacher for being ‘nice’ and funny and I knew I would pass the subject anyway, and I did. Haha.

Grad practice this morning was fine. When we were practicing the processional marching with the PNP band, I felt really sad as I watched my classmates walk with their togas (I’m Villanueva so I’m at the back of the line), realizing that we are going to part ways really soon (well at least those less than 10 out of forty-one of us in class who are not staying in Ateneo for college). High school is really almost over. I felt sentimental yet silly, I could have cried then. No, no, no. I don’t want to cry during graduation.

Well, that made me think. How many times have I cried in the presence of my classmates. First year, once, when our moderator scolded the class and me personally (hahaha!). Second year, hm, wala. Maybe a little during the sharing in our recollection. Third year, once during Days with the Lord. And maybe another time when I had to cry acting out my role as Lucio in our high school stage play competition (’tang ina, nakakainis. I wanted to win best actor for acting that embarrassingly!!). Fourth year, once during our class retreat. Oh well, that makes more or less five times. That’s a lot! Considering life was considerably kind to me compared to how my classmates sometimes show how bad their life was to them. And my reasons are kind of shallow. Oh gee, baka nga maiyak ako sa graduation. How embarrassing.

Siguro mana ako sa lolo ko. He’d always cry like hell every time we and his other children and grandchildren visit him. He’d also always cry for so many other reasons. And to think he’s an extremely chauvinist former chief of police. He’s so funny (sama, pinagtatawanan…).

Brr… hindi ako kinikilig pero kinakabahan ako!! Mamaya na ang grad ball namin.

Sa ibang banda, kung mapapansin n’yo, may idinagdag akong module sa kanan ng webpage. Iyon ay isang Zorpia Box na nag-uupdate kasabay ng pag-update ko ng aking zorpia.com account. Mag-sign up na rin kayo! It’s a community-based photo-sharing site (that allows you to keep unlimited number of high-resolution pictures). May point-system din para hindi maabuso ‘yung bandwidth ng site. Galing! Meron din journal at friends feature. Doon ko na iiimpok ang mga full-size originals ng mga larawang nakikita n’yo dito sa site ko.

EDIT (March 25, 2004, 23:00): I uninstalled my Zorpia box. Messes up the look of the page with Mozilla and it often slows down the load time. You may still drop by my zorpia anytime.

Nagtungo kami sa dentista kahapon. Kahit na pinuri na naman ang mahusay kong pagpapanatili ng aking mga ngipin (haha!), may isa pa rin akong ngiping linagyan ng pasta. Nakakainis lang kasi hindi ako sanay. Para siyang napakalaking tinga na gustong-gusto kong kutkutin.

Kanina bumili ako ng bagong pantalon kasama si Papa sa SM para sa grad ball namin bukas. Hindi ko s’ya masyadong inaasahan. Magsasaya ako (sana pati siya), pero hindi ako kinikilig. Parang… wala lang. Nakakalungkot nga eh. Hassle talaga ‘tong grad ball sa mga unattached. Oo, siguro nga it’s a time to be sentimental with your classmates and reminisce. Pero ang ball, ‘di ba… sayawan ‘yan? “A formal gathering for social dancing,” ang kahulugang ibinigay ng dictionary.com. Alam mo namang makipagsayawan tayo sa isa’t isa? (Egh…) O kung hindi naman, tumunganga lang at mag-usap. Hindi ko sinasabing hindi ‘yon magandang gawin ng mga magkakaklaseng puro lalaki, pero sa palagay ko hindi ball ang wastong pagkakataon para dun. Ah, basta, magsaya na lang tayo bukas, ‘yun na ‘yon! Naguguluhuan lang talaga ako ngayon.