LIGHT. SHADE. AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN.
What do you know? After 68 million years, our college batch finally has a yearbook!!! Just when everyone has almost given up all hope of ever having an Aegis ‘97, our batch was saved from eternal oblivion with the announcement of the completion of our very own yearbook. Never mind that the “look” of the said yearbook is a lot less fancy than what was originally envisioned (translation: plain and ordinary). Never mind that the faces on the photos don’t look like us anymore. Never mind that the baby pics and barkada poses that we submitted are nowhere to be seen in any of the pages (and will never actually be returned to us) because some guy lost all of them! Never mind those. At least, we now have something that we will be remembered by as a batch.
Come to think of it, the on-going concern about the yearbook—or rather, the lack thereof—was the only thing that our entire batch really “bonded” over. I mean, even our Blue Roast (the supposed equivalent of a graduation ball in our university) was, for lack of a better word, a flop. Even people from other batches noticed that a lot of Batch ’97 graduates do not even know each other. But the long wait for Aegis ‘97 somehow gave us a common cause—something to complain about together and look forward to together.:) I’m just glad that all that waiting was not in vain.
Anyway, upon claiming my copy this morning, I couldn’t help but take a trip down memory lane as I browsed through the pages of our much-awaited annual. I excitedly pored over its glossy pages to hunt for pics of old classmates, orgmates, and friends, as well as those of batchmates who I never actually met before I joined JVP (but who I now consider to be my good friends). I alternately laughed and marveled at the accuracy of some of the write-ups. I was also constantly surprised to learn some tidbits about some of my batchmates who I only became friends with after college. But generally, based on the write-ups vis-à-vis what I know of my batchmates at present, it seems that (almost) everyone has, in one way or another, become an improved version of his/her younger self.:)
When I came across my own write-up, I almost didn’t want to read it.:) And when I did, I was sort of cringing all the while, because: (1) some of it doesn’t sound like me (the way I know myself now); and (2) a lot of it does sound like me. Harhar. In other words, it made me acknowledge that, indeed, a lot has changed (especially in terms of the exteriors), but at the same time, the core of me is still very much intact. And it is that very same core that has enabled me to grow into the person that I am today.
As Rosing used to tell the volunteers:
“We do not really change.
We only become more of who we ought to be.”
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It’s funny, but all this yearbook business has made me realize that I am now actually in the same boat as my circa ’97 self (when I just graduated from college). Like the fresh-grad POL, I just finished an important chapter in my life—one of academic import at that. Also, like in those days, I am presently a bum. Harhar. But at the same time, I’m chasing a dream, waiting in the wings for a chance to fulfill a promise to myself. Life has never seemed so full of possibilities.
In fact, these past four weeks have been some of the least stressful ones in my adult life. Not that I had a lot of down time. There was always something to do or somewhere to go to. But the big difference was that I had complete control of my time, and I can choose to do whatever I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it. In short, there was little time pressure. Even the revisions I had to do with my thesis, and the processing of my final revised manuscript, proceeded in my own pace, my own time.
Like many things in life, such arrangement has its advantages and disadvantages:
Main advantage: I can do all the nothing I want--the kind of nothing that actually amounts to something valuable. In the past three weeks, I’ve been able to catch up with friends from almost all areas of my life. Three weeks ago, it was JVP gimmick week. Two weeks ago, I got to spend quality time with my friends, ex-officemates and former “kids” from Pathways. Last Friday, I watched a lovely play where some of my buddies from my home orgs—ACIL, JVP and Pathways—were present. (And some of them didn’t even know each other before that day.) Then, just last weekend, it was road-trip and food-trip galore in Quezon with my high school classmates!
Main disadvantage: Dwindling funds! Although I’m still (thankfully) not in the red, I realize that my savings can only take me so far, especially at the rate that I’ve been spending my money on "rest and recreation" activities these days. And with the effects of E-VAT soon to be kicking in, income-earning part-time work is something that I’d very much welcome these days.
Come to think of it, this is something that my 21-year-old self did not have to worry about.
Hmm, some things do change after all.:)
