Alma Matters

Thursday is Major Electives Day, so I hardly left my college complex, except for lunch… I’m sick of our canteen, so are my batchmates.

Having Conceptual Photography class with my adviser, idol, and favorite professor, Sir Buwan, is easily the most fun I’ve had all week (so far). He had us bring our “digits”—his term for digital cameras—and made us take pictures of ourselves! Throughout the period we were all laughing at ourselves making silly poses and faces. There wasn’t really any underlying principle or lesson or whatever with the activity. Sir Buwan said he just wanted to have something fun to start off the year.

A quote by Prof. Mike Buwan:

“I had you use your digits for two reasons. One is so you could see
your photos instantly and laugh at them at the same time, and two, so you don’t
have to worry about the people at the developing shop looking at you in a weird
way.”

Sharing the photos in class was optional, but I think I showed mine to anyone who asked. We were laughing so hard at ourselves that the next door classes kept reprimanding us for being so loud.

---

I ran into Black around lunchtime. I was walking around with Salome, a friend from my college, looking for somewhere to eat. He was looking another way so I called him, “Hey, B!”

He turned around, like I startled him or something, then he quickly said, “Hi, L.”

Then he glanced at his watch and briskly walked away.

---silence---

“What was that all about?” Sal asked.

I shrugged and answered, “he’s busy.”

In my mind I was asking myself the same thing.

---

I checked my email earlier and got this forwarded message from one of my high school classmates.

Subject: FWD: Students Reunite!

Can you believe it? It’s been four years already!
Four years into college
Four years of living our own lives
Four years since we went our separate ways.
It’s about time we looked back at our past when we were one big happy family.
And what better way to do this than by having a Grand Batch Reunion!
Take this rare chance to see the Class of 2001 back together again in our beloved Alma Mater.

“Students Reunite!” is scheduled for April 2005.
We’d love to have you back!

Okay. First things first: that was WAY cheezy. Who writes this stuff??

Then #2: they want a reunion already? What else has happened in our lives besides college anyway? We haven’t even thought of what our success stories would be about!

Not that I don’t want to have a reunion. I regularly “reunite” with my classmates every summer, so we pretty much know how each of us are during those four years. But… I don’t know. I think it’s a bit too early for everybody to get together.

After reading, I automatically went to my room and took out the box of photographs under my bed (after much messing up everything else in there). Eventually I found myself sprawled on the floor with piles of snapshots taken in high school, remembering the moments that went with each.

You’d think that I haven’t done this in ages, but honestly, I rummage through my high school stuff quite often. Whenever I’m reminded of anything that relates to it, I dig it up in the multiple boxes of odds and ends and letters collected from high school. And each time I do, I still enjoy it.

I really miss those days. We all seemed so carefree. I wonder if I’ll look back at college as I do to high school. Will I ever have days like those again? I hope so… but probably not.