Speeding up? Naah, just enjoy it.

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 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 call time was three am in the morning but due to over excitement, most of us slept late the night before and even those who spent the night in one of my classmate’s house didn’t slept at all! And that was the reason why some were late. We were able to leave the school ground around five am in the morning. 

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.

Around nine am in the morning we arrived at the Inter-Franciscan Retreat House where we will be staying for next three days. The place is on top of a mountain thus giving us beautiful scenery and a perfect view of nature, there were a lot of trees around the convent and because it is in a high plane, the breeze is cold and every morning you could expect fog.

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.