Missing my old friends.Dear Father,
Today, I stumbled upon a name of an old college classmate during a conversation at lunch. I thought so hard of her name and finally succeeded in giving the name to her face. I remembered what our trainor here in the office taught us. That we can try to look for the name of people using Google. So that is what I did.
First I Googled "Adeliza Alonzo", that charming soprano girl from college. There were many search results, but none about the person I know of. I was about to close the browser when another name came to mind. What about those guys back in elementary?
I can only remember a few of them, as I considered my life back then as Hell. Those that I managed to remain in my memory are those who were pretty significant.
First I searched my "bestfriend" back at Grade 3, Ms. Viracell O. Luansing. Who would have thought this cute Chinese girl would turn out to be a UP Los Banos Scholar with an average GPA of 1.63. Wow! She definitely rocks! I bet she doesn't remember me anymore, but hey, I give her a salute for managing to even get in to UP. I failed at their entrance exams and will forever be banned from entering their gates.
Next, I searched for a dear friend back at Grade 4. His name is Mr. Andrian Benavidez. He's probably the first guy I ever got close with, but not that close enough. He was an interesting kid with adorable pink cheeks. The only person I've ever seen probably in my whole life with naturally rosy cheeks. He was a pretty chubby person back then too. And very very friendly. He tried to get real close with me and even exchange little letters occasionally. Sadly though, I never appreciated everything that much, and back then, my heart was closed to everything else. I lost contact with him when I transferred schools, but I have really fond memories of being with him. I still keep the angel he gave me as a gift, and I still remember his birthday... October 24, 1986.
I stopped writing to him out of embarrassment. I was younger and thought like a child. He was more mature and may want a more private life. So that ended my communications with him altogether.
I searched his name in Google and got the second surprise for the day.
Andrian Benavidez went to Jose Rizal University for college and became part of the male cheering squad there. He looks so far from the Andrian I knew, so I was only sure it was him because his address located him in Pasig City. He is still the friendly guy I know, and had managed to shed off a great amount of weight too. He had lost his rosy cheeks though. But he is still smiles a lot, and that is great. I still hope I could meet him someday. I bet he'd notice a great difference with the little girl he once knew.
Finally, I searched for our Grade 3 class vice president, Mr. Timothy Nabong. He was a thin looking kid with fairly large eyes and ears (in my eyes that is). He was once my seatmate and I admired his mad drawing skillz. He was really smart too. I had a secret crush with him back then.
Lo and behold, the kid had turned into a fine man. He was (or perhaps still is) a part of a religious band called SONs Youth Band, writing music (and maybe singing them as well). He was very active in a religious sense, even writing a column called "Looking Up" which is a reflection of a student's life with God. He looks different in his picture too, grown bigger muscles than when I last saw him. He'd probably scold me about my faith if I ever meet him again.
I tried to search for others, but it seemed that the Internet holds little to no info about them. Maybe one day I could try to search for more of my elementary classmates and see what they've been up to.
Sincerely,
Jerusha
P.S. By the way, if you are curious, I tried to look your name up as well. As of today, Google finds nothing under your name.
