Sunday, March 04, 2007

ateneo blues

yeah, i've lived here inside the campus since time immemorial. never left actually. but then i've stayed away from the college for a while now. my life then in the ateneo seemed too distant just the same.

however, i got to reminisce my old days when i met my long lost friend KF this weekend. i agreed to tour him around the college, technically though we toured it together as i've never really visited our spots again in a long time.

we started off walkin along edsa walk and searched for our org corkboard, unfortunaly we didn't see much posters, not that many activities huh?

then we went lookin for our org room, drat the old building where we used to hang out is no longer the old dilapidated one instead there stood this fancy, fancy building which we can't see ourselves runnin and lounging around tsk tsk...we even looked for our old maintenance guy, mang manny but we didn't find him anymore. but the new building though is now named after him, yun nga lang Manny Pangilinan hahahah!!!

from there we went to the Church of the Gesu and stood in awe at the magnificent structure. KF though went lookin for the sword supposedly held by the Sacred Heart statue of Jesus *boink-boink*!!! patience, patience my dears. :D

then we went to pollock and looked at the magnificent view overlooking marikina. i remembered having watched the moonrise there over the valley. there we sat for a while and caught up on things. i really missed those conversations. even the meaningful silences shared. i believe we do need that deep conversations once in a while. it does pay to have a friend who knows you and who can get you and would care listenin to you rants and all.

from there we went to the back of faura building, another fave spot. too bad the sun was out already. we used to get a good view of the sunset then. there are tall buildings now blocking the view though. sigh.

sa likod ng ng faura, it's there where we used to stare at the people outside. marvelling at how busy their lives are as they rush from one destination to another. we used to create stories about people in the cars passing by. at the same time we would reflect on our lives. how distant we are from them. it's like bein on a fishbowl. inside the ateneo everythin is safe, controlled, warm.

we must have stayed there for hours. talking and not talking. after all, as padre ferriols would have said pag nasasabi mo na ang lahat ng nasabi, ang pinaka importante pa din ay ang hindi nasasabi.

we left the campus kinda sad but happy still. a lot have indeed changed but vestiges of the home we once knew remained. what matters most anyway are the memories, the laughters, the hurts, all the shouting when things weren't so good and the making up when circumstances were better understood. and most of all, realizing that there is always a home you could come home to, and a friend who could hold your hand till the end.

tnx KF!

4 comments:

  1. I liked that last paragraph.

    It (Ateneo) continues to change, but it continues to retain a sense of the familiar, and you just have to look at the right places. The same trees, the same fields. For me, it's the feeling of home, and the feeling that I belong that always makes me want to go back.

    Some of the people I really took the effort to track when I had my vacation, were Mang Manny and Ate Alma, who still remembered me. They're more a part of Ateneo than some instructors who're only there for a year or two.

    I almost cried the last time I was there, just before I went back to the States (now, I can't believe I just admitted that, haha).

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  2. uuy soft spot hahaha!!!

    yeah, indeed our school has become a home where we "lived" and knew different kinds of people all contributing to where and what we are now.

    sigh.

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  3. ako rin pag namamasyal dun, di ko na kakilala mga tao, di ko na rin kabisado yung mga lugar-lugar. pero kahit anong mangyari, yun pa rin yung kinalakihan kong lugar. sabi nga, dun ako nagka-ugat. sarap bumalik!!

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  4. hi albert!! yeah, kaw din nun last kita nakita may nagbago din sa yo pero sempre for sure ikaw pa din yun dating albert na nakilala ko, and more! ;)

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