High school gave me experiences
that are worth the keep in my wooden treasure box. But to be frank, during
those four years in high school waking up 5am in the morning, waiting for a motor (a motorcycle with a sidecar and a
roof; our city’s mode of transportation), arriving before the 7:20 am flag
ceremony, chitchatting about wattpad-stories, clash of clans, how the weekend
was or the latest school gossip somehow became normal to me. Even those
mornings when some are reviewing for the math quiz or the boys coping up with
their unfinished essays that were due on the afternoon became a usual vista to
the eye and we, humans have that orientation that when we became accustomed
with things by some means, we struggle to see the significance of it. And I’m not
an exception.
I always wanted time to speed up
back in my senior year and I was caught up in my eagerness to enter college and
so, I attach a sparse importance to occurrences in my last year in high school.
As graduation day took place and I and my other forty-one batch mates finally
worn our white togas with blue cord around the shoulder and tassels flipped at
the left, we stood in three lines arrange according to our height in front of the
altar, facing our families, friends and teachers. We stood there with our
medals, ribbons and pins; we stood there to sing our graduation and batch song,
and for the last time, we stood there to sing our Alma Matter song the “Stella
Maris Hymn”.
As we heard the G minor, as our
cue, in unison we put down our graduation caps and place it near our chest. The
pianist started to play the keys and the whole Holy Rosary Parish was filled
with the melody of the song “Time of our lives” by Tyrone Wells and as the
intro fades, we sang our hearts out.
This is where the chapter ends
And new one now begins
Time has come for letting go
The hardest part is when you know
All of there years
When we were here
Are ending
But I'll always remember
And new one now begins
Time has come for letting go
The hardest part is when you know
All of there years
When we were here
Are ending
But I'll always remember
And for a moment, I saw in a swift stride flashes of vivid time of events in my four years in high school. I even saw snippet of moments during my first day in freshmen year, the new faces, the introduce-yourself-in-front, the welcome to the family event organized by the student council to welcome the freshmen, transferees and new staffs and I remember in a picturesque our first and last educational field trip in Rizal Shine at Dapitan City.
I remember the chaotic scene where everyone's voice filled the bus with their excitement; others are busy eating the chips they bought, some folks were standing; others were chatting with their seatmates and of course, some were taking pictures.
Arriving at the destination, I recall listening to a
symposium about the life and works of our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal and
after, we were able to roam around the premises which not only holds historical
ambience but as well as a precise illustration of nature. You could feel the
cool and fresh air around; you could also see flowers and trees at every corner
and a pond at one side. There were also a lot of kubo around the area and some of these are:
Casa Redonda is a
house with eight sides which was Rizal’s clinic. The step-father of Josephine
Bracken, George Taufer had his eye operated in Casa Redonda.
Casa de Salud or the health houses are two small huts (one
for male and one for female) roost onto a low hill which was intended for
Rizal’s out-of-town patients.
Casa Residencia is the main house and also the biggest one.
This is where Rizal lived during his exile at Dapitan with his girlfriend,
Josephine Bracken. I somehow remember seeing a photo of Rizal inside the house.
At the end of the shrine, a gargantuan rock could surely
catch your attention. This enormous rock is called “Mi Retiro Rock” or Rizal’s
retreat rock. While sitting on the rock, Rizal wrote the first few stanzas of
the poem “Mi Retiro” hence, the name.
Jose Rizal and Josephine Bracken (Rizal’s girlfriend) has spent many romantic
moments on the rock as well but what amaze me more of this rock is its
exquisite view of the Sulu Sea.
 |
| The view on top of the Mi Retiro Rock |
I couldn’t remember more of the adventure but as those
images flick in my head, I feel like I want to go back to those moments, enjoy
the scenery, took more pictures, remember the jokes behind the laughs, and just
seize the moment. I felt the feeling of
going back and re-experience it again so that when I choose to turn the page in
my freshmen year, I have something to write about, I have something I could
vividly remember during my first year in high school.
We have had the time of our lives
And now the page is turned
The stories we will write
We have had the time of our lives
And I will not forget the faces left behind
It’s hard to walk away from the best of days
But if it has to end, I’m glad you have been my friend
In the time of our lives
In front of the altar, we stood facing our loved ones and
sang, yet I somehow felt like we were not just singing the song, we were
feeling it.We just didn’t sing with the rhyme
but we became one with the rhythm, we weren’t just saying the words but we
relate to the words and that is what feeling a song is. As everyone continued to sing, I heard voices
but at the same time I also heard sobs and faint cries. Some of my batch mates
started being emotional and so did I.
Actually, most of my batch mates in high
school were also my batch mates in elementary. I spend ten years with these
people starting from learning the ABAKADA, the odd and even and the is and are
to knowing Jose Rizal, finding the x of the slope and computing the gross
domestic income of the nation. I grow up with these people and became too
familiar with them to the extent that we could distinguished ones hand writing, know who could eat four cups of rice, whose the procrastinators or even joke with ones drawing. Four or ten years are
a long time and in this span of time we’ve created memories. One exciting
moment in high school that I was able to spend with my batch mates was the
Junior-Senior Promenade. Who could ever forget their first prom?
Our promenade was simple, it didn’t take place in a lavish
three-star hotel nor had an overrated theme. We held our promenade at our
school’s Quonset Hall with a theme “Children of the Past, Stewards of the World
Today: Building a Nation of Love for the Future.”
Inside the hall, chairs covered with white cloth and a
stripe of blue at the top were placed at the right side intended for us, juniors
and at the left side, chairs with red stripe were intended for the seniors. A
red carpet was placed at the aisle and at the corner were white anthuriums and
an artificial cherry blossom. The stage was also decorated with a pink and blue
motif, a table was place at the centre of the stage then above it where roses
and candles, in front of the table were two big candles and at the side was the emcee’s table.
The program was divided in three parts;
the first part was a paraliturgy. The first part begun with students in pair (a
junior and a senior) entered the hall, followed by an opening prayer then the
presentation of the symbols: the key of responsibility, the school logo,
rosaries and candles which will be used for the highlight of the first part,
the turning over of the key of responsibility.
The turning over of the key of responsibility was a symbolic
hand over. The seniors led with the supreme student council president of that
time, Gianne Uy Guantero passed on the key of responsibility which symbolized
being a sensible and reliable ates and
kuyas to the lower years and the
running student council candidates, I and Althea Jane B. Molina accepted the
key on behalf of all juniors. On our counterpart, we juniors handed over our
school logo to our seniors for them to be reminded of our school’s vision and
mission as they step out of the walls of our school and live the teachings of
mother Mary of the Passion and St. Francis of Assisi as they ventured to
another chapter in their lives, college.
The second part of the program was dinner and the last part
was the fun part of it all, the party time. Everyone changed from their
uniforms to semi-formal dresses, we just dance, sing and party all night long
and we didn’t realize we were already making memories we could keep.
Where the water meets the land
There is shifting in the sand
Like the tide that ebbs and flows
Memories will come and go
All of these years
When we were here
Are ending, but I’ll always remember…
We say goodbye, we hold on tight
To these memories that never die.
I see flashes of cameras while we were singing. Our parents
are in front watching us as we fulfilled another chapter, as we say goodbye and
as we turn this moment into a memory. I look further and beyond the massive
door of the church, I saw a glimpse of the open field and I recall that day,
January 26, 2015, three am in the morning.
Before the cramming and burning of
candles for the final exams, before the anxiety of knowing the results of the
deliberation of honors and before the repetitive practice for the graduation
day, all of us fourth year students, indulge first with the thought of going to
Josefina, Zamboanga del Sur. During senior year, one of the most awaited
experience is the three days and two nights retreat in Josefina, the fourth
year before us shared how beautiful the place and how memorable there stay was
and our batch was looking forward of visiting the place and so, the day itself
arrived.
The travel from Oroquieta City to Josefina is four hours
and
so, for the whole trip we prayed all the mysteries
of the rosary, after that
some decided to sleep and others decided to eat and just enjoyed the golden
beam of
light from the crack of dawn cascading throughout
the vast horizon
outside the car’s window pane.
The place is outstanding; you could feel at ease, tranquil, balance and harmonious.
What the place could offer is far from the buzzing city state, the sound of the
birds can soothe your body, mind and spirit, the whoosh of the leaves in a
light breeze brings you tranquility and the sound of crickets at night could
be your serene lullaby.
When we arrived, the first thing we did
was of course, take pictures.
After a while, we place our things in the assign rooms for
us. The dormitories for girls and for boys are in separate building but still
in the same compound. Inside the dormitory, each room can accommodate four
persons and have two double deck beds and at the left end of the quarter, you
could find the comfort rooms.
After we had our breakfast, our phones
where surrendered so that it could not alter the purpose of the retreat and
afterwards we proceeded with the schedule. Sister Isabelita P. Suarez, FMM our
school directress held a talk about life’s treasures and how these treasures
are more important than the earthly ones. We consumed the first day talking and
sharing about this topic. The following day, we talked about that one lady in
our life that will always be selfless for us, our mother and in the afternoon,
we had a confession.
During the last day,
we woke up around four am to attend a mass at the poor Claire’s monastery. It
was still so dark while we walked to the church; we could barely see the pavement.
It was also cold that you could shiver and feel the coldness tingle your bone.
After hearing the mass and the day break, we visited and talked with the poor
Claire nuns.
Heading back to the retreat house, we’ve been amaze again of
the beauty this place hold. Just a few steps away from the church, you could
see a towering sculpture of the sacred heart of Jesus and below it were flowers
forming the word “JESUS”.
And of course, we don’t want to regret not having a picture in the place and so, snap!
We have had the time of our lives
And now the page is turned
The stories we will write
We have had the time of our lives
And I will not forget the faces left behind
It’s hard to walk away from the best of days
But if it has to end, I’m glad you have been my friend
In the time of our lives
I’m glad you have been my friend
In the time of our lives
As the song ends and the melody fades, I see my batch mates’
faces in tears. We’ve finished the song, we’ve finish the ceremony, we’ve
finished high school. At that moment I realize how wasteful it is to wish for
time to speed up because no matter how scary, how boring or how embarrassing
that time is, it will always depend on you if you’re going to change that time
into a moment then five, ten or fifteen years after, you’ll look back and laugh
with those memories. Leap your faith and take a chance because you’ll never
know how a certain moment can turn out into a quintessential memory. Yes, a
memory because when you realize the true value of a moment, then it becomes a
memory that is worth the keep in your wooden treasure box.
