Hold On

My Fantasia fantasizing was interrupted last March 10 by a far more pleasant matter, a fantasy-turned-reality, so to speak. This activity was so compelling that for the first time in months, I woke up earlier than eight in the morning, just to make sure I wouldn't be left behind even if I knew from past experience that things like these follow an extreme form of Filipino time. However, it turned out well and good that I woke up early; since, to my surprise, everyone had also been up and ready early enough, enabling the trip to commence in record time by eight. After a hurried breakfast and a few minutes wait by the C5 road, I was all smiles when the rented van approached, and, once inside, I chatted with dear friends I had not seen for a while. The places whizzed by: South Luzon Expressway, Star Toll Way, Lipa City, Padre Garcia town, San Juan town, Laiya Beach. In a little less than four hours (another record time, thanks to a driver who's too fast, too eager for comfort), I was back at the Casa Remo Apartelle.

Now approaching its first year in business, the apartelle had maintained the no-frills approach that would appeal to tourists simply in need of a clean and safe place to sleep, eat and leave their things while they explore the beach and the sea. Why bother with amenities like cable TV, which are supposed to be left behind in the city? Doing away with these fancy stuffs to lower the room rate would be far more reasonable for me. Besides, the real priceless treasure would be the warm service provided by the caretakers.

Speaking of the beach and the sea, Laiya had staved off at least for this year the commercialization plaguing other more famous beaches in the Philippines. There was still none of those in-your-face beachside rows of restaurants and videoke bars. Heck, there's even a 10 pm moratorium from the videoke-induced ear torture, at least in Casa Remo. Also, the boats ferrying people to snorkel sites were still occupying a small stretch of beach; thus, they bother only those who swim within their territory. I was able to take one such boat ride and finally saw fishes, colored yellow, silver and blue, swim up close to feed from the bread crumbs we offered. I was even more delighted that two shortcomings I had pointed out in my Laiya post last year were somehow absent this time around: the sea was cleaner now while the stronger pressure of the plumbing system provided enough flowing water for me to have a decent shower.

Curiously, I am giving Laiya and Casa Remo a rare all-glowing review. Perhaps it is due to the timing of our outing; since, this time we got there before the end of classes and the Holy Week vacation. Meaning, we arrived weeks before hordes of tourists from Metro Manila spoil the place with their wasteful habits (city-dwellers, bah!). Furthermore, unlike last year, there was no typhoon the week before to mess up the area.

I think, though, that I tend to gloss over trifles simply because I was in good company last weekend. As I had said in my post last year, if I wanted to make a pilgrimage reliving all those exhilarating emotional memories of college friendship, I should have done it so with these friends. Well whaddya know, good things do happen if one fervently wishes for them to happen.

I was with my friends from the college organization we fondly refer to as DS. There were only six of us in that outing: Maan, Malen, Niña, Ruth, Jacob and I. Others have been tied up with other commitments in home, school or office, on matters that were either scheduled way beforehand or cropped up at the last minute. Due to a routine overtime, even I almost didn't make it if not for a change in the outing's schedule.

From about twenty or more potential attendees, the fact that only six made it is admittedly disappointing for me somewhat, but I do acknowledge, reluctantly, that ever since graduating and being entrenched in our respective work or further education, it is inevitable that we would part ways. It has been two to three years since dispersing to pursue our individual careers. Although we do meet up once in a while, it would never be the same like in college, where every day we would drop by our little org room either to fulfill our "shifting" for our various services or simply to seek amiable company. Gone, too, would be those weekly meetings where we discussed, in no particular order, organization stuff, the latest gossip or what gimik we would do afterwards. When once we thought that the different schedules of classes and locations classrooms already make meeting up quite challenging, even more varied schedules and locations of the different companies and schools we are in now make meeting up almost impossible. Ah, I remember myself one March morning two years ago, also here in Casa Remo. We were wrapping up our penultimate official activity for DS, all huddled in prayer. It was at the point when I contemplated this impending prospect of separation that I was driven to tears: bittersweet tears they were.

Though unavoidable the drifting away would be, I hope we do so with the ties still intact, in such a way that when the call for a reunion such as this arrives, and barring no conflict in schedules nor logistical concerns, almost everyone would attend.

In this outing, one thing reminded me why these are great friends beyond sharing common interests, beyond sharing common opinions, beyond sharing fun moments together. The fact that we can express our misgivings of each other, without the ill feelings is, I think, proof of a mature and strong friendship. More than acceptance, there is that desire to make friends grow. Being on the receiving end of constructive criticism from friends like these have made me aware of weaknesses, an awareness that is more acute than if the remark is coming from, say my boss or even my parents.

It was amusing that even until now, there can still be new things we discover from one another: from confidential interrogations, discussions on love and friendship, and actuations by the beach we got to know of changes, intrigues and the like. Among the discoveries, the most striking and at the same time comforting for me, in the sense that they resonated with my own sentiments, were that we share the gratitude of how this companionship had contributed to our growth to the better as well as the desire to preserve the friendship for the rest of our lives.

The outing was only an overnight stay, and our reunion ended too soon. With a sigh, our present commitments crept into our consciousness. We traveled to Manila in silence, to each his or her own thoughts. We were going back to the "real world" and wallow there until the next fantasy-turned-reality.

-oOo-

Apologies for the delay of this write-up. Immediately after the outing, instead of resting for the week of work ahead, my laptop and me myself was commandeered in the preparations for another journey, this time to a big destination come May, and when I say big I mean literally and figuratively big. To avoid being jinxed however, I won't mention it yet, just stay tuned folks!

(Pictures from Ruth)