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| Photo credit to google.com |
Half of my life, every year, every time I add another year
to my age, I celebrate my “A” day with my “kababata” - a childhood friend I
grew up with. We were born on the same date, August 15. But, he is a year older
than I am.
But as we grew older, things started to change, and the
changes happened fast. It all began when a fire incident in the mid 1990s hit
the then La Ignaciana Apostolic Center of the Philippines in Sta. Ana, Manila.
It was an old church ran by the Jesuits and was later converted into a retreat
house. It was said that it was in this place where the original manuscript of
Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere was kept hidden.
A few years after the incident, the property was sold. The
Jesuits said selling the property was a better option than having the old
structure reconstructed because it would be costly for them. And so the families
of the Jesuits’ employees who have lived in the apartment units inside the huge
compound, had to leave the place.
It was a daunting reality for us because it will mean saying
goodbye, especially for us (children) whose friendship and bonding know no one
but US. It was no surprise that most of
us grew up as if glued to each other because it was just a 12-door apartment
establishment, meaning the number of kids you will see then depends on the
number of children each employee had.
So, each family started to move on from one place to
another, until eventually we lost contact. Gladly the era of social media came
to life, like Facebook, because while I know he is in another part of the
world, I get to greet him Happy Birthday again.
There may be no spaghettis and lumpiang shanghais or pansit
bihons and friend chickens to share, but I am happy that we get to exchange
greetings again. We shared with each other our plans on how we will
individually spend our birthdays. Simple things like that makes old memories
sweet and fond to cherish.
To my kababata and others like me who are celebrating their
birthday today, Kudos to US! May we continue to live each day with JOY, LOVE, SATISFACTION
and better SENSE. J