Organized Madness.

Toward the end of last week, I had the opportunity to hang out with a really good friend from high school. And let me tell you - it was one of the most refreshing things to have happened to me in quite a while.

First, a bit of background. We met on the first day of high school; she played volleyball with my cousin, who introduced us as we walked up the steps into the main doors. I still remember the awkward exchange of hello’s and nice to meet you’s as we rushed into the building. More importantly, I remember how neither of us had any clue as to how we were going to factor into each other’s lives from that day forward. 

From then on (skipping parts of freshman year, because things happened that were… unnecessary) we were really close. We’d have lunch together when our schedules allowed, and we’d sit on the steps of the gazebo in the park with our other friends, hating on teachers who made our lives miserable or talking about the latest trends. We’d sing together, me with guitar in hand or piano at bay, and her with the vocals to match, pretending we could be YouTube stars someday. When we realized we couldn’t do that, we’d call each other up (especially during American Idol) and laugh at all the people that we knew were worse than us. We’d call each other about the most random things - typical high school things, like homework, gossip, her boy troubles, my girl troubles, etc. And the phone calls that we intended to have for a few minutes almost always turned into conversations that lasted for hours on end.

After we graduated, we went to different colleges, and so naturally we didn’t see each other as much. The phone calls stopped. But we always made an effort to see each other once in a while, which brought to fruition last week’s encounter.

I think what was most refreshing about this was the conversation topics that we talked about. We both have part-time jobs in our related fields - she’s an ER tech for a big hospital, and I work as a systems analyst for a company. We talked about our futures and our career paths, about how I wanted to pursue a PhD sometime soon, about how she was torn about going into a part-time DNP program because she couldn’t think of a field of specialization. At this point, we started sounding like real adults about to step into the threshold of real life, and it didn’t stop there. We talked about living at our parents’ homes, and how we were willing to live there for a few years after graduation just so that we could buy a house. We both agreed that we hated renting and that we’d rather pay mortgages as investments, though we were iffy on the commitment of staying in one place for a long time. (We’re only in our early twenties and we’re making these kinds of decisions! Crazy.) 

We had this discussion over dinner, and my mind was so enveloped in the thoughts and ideas we shared with each other (and how we agreed on most of the topics - but great minds think alike, of course). At one point, she said something that I won’t forget; it went something along the lines of “it’s really nice that I can talk about these things with you - you’re the only one I can talk to about these things.” And I sat there, and thought about that statement. I had to agree - she was the only one I could realistically talk to about the future, about the prospects of owning a home and other plans. 

But then, of course, we went back to my house, where we watched two romcoms and analyzed every last detail out of them, just like the good ol’ days. 

See? Growing up doesn’t necessarily mean that everything changes.

juanrepublic:

Part 1
Part 2 

This, in my opinion, is better than KC’s iyak moment earlier.
Good night Henyos!

I’ve stopped watching Filipino talk shows (and Filipino TV in general) for a while (I WANT MY MAGING SINO KA MAN BACK!), but this was a good interview.