- September 27, 2014, Saturday.
- I'll deviate a bit from the usual kinds of entries I post. This one's going to be a bit more personal, a giant window to my past, but I cannot afford to miss the opportunity to post this because of its "legendary" status. Why legendary? This very last minute reunion was 6 to 8 years in the making. This special reunion I had was with friends - no, family- I've had back in high school during my years as a performer of our English high school theater group called MASCKS. I was the president of the group during senior year high school, and the members whom I have trained later became my successors in the group, just as I have become a successor of the other veterans before me. During my presidential year, I did a handful of jobs for our play, a summarized version of the Hindu epic Ramayana; it was because of my involvement in this group (plus some other achievements) that I was able to get the President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Awards for Art and Culture when I graduated (but what I consider the bigger "award" was having the chance to work with my members and, hopefully, I inspired them as much as they have inspired me.) More importantly, my involvement in the group after high school, not anymore as a performer but as one of the mentors, allowed me to reach many places that helped me boost my currently semi-academic career. In addition to this, MASCKS has also become one of the spaces where I have expressed and manifested my cultural advocacy, from the methods I use to teach performing arts, to the executed production itself. It was great to be a performer, but even greater to develop raw and potential talents to find their light and shine on stage, in their own lives, and in the lives of others!
- I was particularly close to many of the members I have handled, and thanks to modern technology, I was still able to keep in touch with them or see some of them individually, usually coincidentally. We were not able to make a reunion because of the sheer number of people in our "family," which also meant a lot of schedule conflicts and whatnot. As much as my members urged and encouraged me to organize a reunion, I myself was busy (and still am;) I did try to organize a few times, to no avail. This time, my friend Ryan told me the last minute that he was a bit vacant from medical school because of his university's "Med Week," and from my understanding, it was a week where most academic stuff was replaced by preparations and the execution of some team-building events and competitions among the students of his university's school of medicine. Because of this, he was free this Saturday, and so he asked if I could try to schedule a lunch gathering. I tried, and contacted some of the people in a hurry. My schedule was quite filled this week too, so I wasn't able to keep track of everyone and invite them. (Had I more time, I really would have.) Fortunately, some were able to confirm, and I decided to push through with it as a "guinea pig reunion."
- Today, Renee, Ryan, Demi, Bryann came to meet me for lunch in Lucky Chinatown's Mann Hann. (It's been a while since I last used their names in a single sentence - I better get used to it again, perhaps!!) I have loved Mann Hann since the first time I've eaten there more than 10 years ago. Of course I had to go farther since there was no Lucky Chinatown yet. Needless to say I was quite ecstatic to know that Mann Hann is now nearer to my area. The price of the dishes are very reasonable, and the quality of the food seemed fine, although there are times that their food could be a bit salty, but it's I can shrug off most of the time as far as Mann Hann is concerned. Most of their dishes are Cantonese cuisine (dubbed the best kind of cuisine under Chinese cuisine, and the most popular too) with some Fujianese influences. We had the typical favorites: seafood pancit canton, yangchow fried rice, fried squid (with really salty fish sauce at the side,) oyster cake, broccoli with (a lot of) oyster sauce, and lechon macau.
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| With Ryan, Bryann, Demi, and Renee. |
- Alex later arrived, disoriented and frustrated; apparently she had a minor road incident on the way to Lucky Chinatown. Which reminds me - the traffic was worse today everywhere in Manila. We quickly gave her a seat, let her relax, and made her eat.
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| Alex trying to compose herself while Renee tries to suppress her inner laughter (I kid of course.) |
- While conversing with them, I couldn't believe that we were all together again, hearing each others voices, and catching up in person. It made me realize how far all of us have gone - Ryan's in med school, Bryann's still on his way to becoming an engineer, Demi has a new job, Renee is happy with her current job, Alex is in law school, and I, "Mr. Itchy Toes" Gibby, am everywhere. Other members who were not present include one who is in currently in London for further studies, another currently in Japan for work, another in Japan too for work and further studies, another is a nurse in the United States, another is a budding entrepreneur, another one is in law school with Alex, another is a chef in a prestigious hotel, another is working with the flag carrier of the country, another is a nurse in a big hospital, another is a graphic designer and a choir singer at the side, and the long list goes on. Hearing everyone's stories made me feel proud and fortunate to know all of them, and still be in contact with them. Our conversations moved from the usual "who's doing what now," to random topics like law, sociology and anthropology, medicine, musicals, and golden deer.
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| Reunited!! (But again, more people in the future, hopefully!!) |
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| Alex's ketchup artwork. |
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| Again, she tries to compose herself. |
- Our "lunch" lasted four to five hours, and we all knew that four to five hours was still too short for catching up. It made me think how long our conversation would be if a lot of us were there. (I wouldn't mind spending the day with them though; it's been a long time.) As much as we wanted to stay, we all had other commitments to the remainder of Saturday. As for me, I was quite satisfied with the outcome of the "guinea pig reunion," and I am prepared for a bigger one in the future. While it made all us quite happy and nostalgic to reminisce our experiences in the past, what I am more excited about is where all of us could go from where we are today, but still keeping in touch and keeping our feet on the ground.
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