When High School Friends Meet

The JARMGC (Jocelyn, Annie, Angge, Racelle, Marifel, Mary Jean, Grace, Carmen, Celinda). We were together for the four years of High School (UST Batch 1986 – no divide then between Junior High and Senior High; K-12 was unheard of yet.) We were seatmates (our surnames start with P,Q, R and S), so we easily became a group.

We were quite the dorks. We worried about Geometry and Physics, pimples, crushes, needle projects, grades below 87 (or 86? Can’t remember now) and tons of assignments. We would talk endlessly about books (we Loved our library!), Remington Steele, Miami Vice, McGyver, Mission Impossible (the TV series, not the cinema flicks), Tootsie, Back to the Future, Spandau Ballet, and the Purefoods basketball team.

After High School (or college, in the case of Racelle and myself), we sort of drifted away as we began building our lives but we did not really lost each other. Somehow, during big occasions, we would manage to bolt in. So we were there for each other’s debut, and then wedding, and then children’s baptism. In fact, we are each other children’s Ninangs.

We had an impromptu meet-up last week. Mary Jean, now based in the US, is in town and we, who are in Manila, just had to see her. Mary Jean has been widowed (not recently) and is left to take care of her three kids now.

After all those years, it is (arguably) good that there is not much change in us. Mary Jean as the youngest one acts like it (she blabbers and giggles charmingly with her head even thrown back in glee); Racelle is practical and caring; Afel still talks rapidly and carries a mountain of concerns; Bodeck is cool and has a solution to the world’s problems; Carmen is sensible and keeps us grounded; I’m still the listener; and Annie, who joined us via Messenger all the way from another continent, still keeps us confounded with her odd predilections.

Close to our golden years, our topics of conversation now revolve around our families, our occupation and/or activities, retirement plans (or lack of it), diet (or lack of it), fitness activities (or lack of it), church and community service (or lack of it), and of course, gossip about people and events from the past (guess who? Hahaha). We had at least six hours together, laughed so much our tummies ached (or it could have been indigestion, too), jabbed at each other, jabbed some more about those who were not around --- and it felt so much like our high school days were just yesterday, not 32 years ago.

Although we each have challenges of our own (raising teeners, need for maintenance medicines, budgeting woes, scheduling our next meet-up), we all seem to be doing fine - living happily and contentedly in the simple, unaffected way that we've always been used to. Ahh, I am very grateful that God gave me these ladies to accompany me through my teen years - we're dorks, but our bonds are tight and durable.