High school homecoming

We had our high school homecoming last night with our class, the Silver Jubilarians, playing host to the batches represented there. It was a very memorable event. After all, you don't get to celebrate 25 years more than once - or can you? Anyhow, despite many of our batchmates unable to come home from abroad (many are currently in the US or Canada), those residing in Metro Manila came in force. It was good to see many old friends and acquaintances again after about 25 years. As expected, some looked as they were back in high school plus a few white hairs. Most probably gained weight. Some grew moustaches or beards. Some sported new hair-dos. But most brought back memories, stories to exchange, and, most important, the jokes and laughter shared throughout our high school days.

Members of LSM Class of 1988

It was also nice too see some of our former teachers including Fr. Ed Tiamzon, who was LSM rector for most of my stay at Lourdes including my graduations from grade school and high school. I learned last October that our English teacher, Ms. Marciano, is now high school principal. She was there last night sharing a table with mostly a new generation of teachers. There was also Mr Ed Caligner who was our Christian Living Education teacher and who is now with Ateneo De Manila University where he is a guidance counselor. Most notable for me though was the presence of my former Physics teacher and 4th year adviser Ms. Marissa Lemu-Solano. I owe her a lot for much of fundamentals in physics that was so useful during my university studies and until now, when I get to used mechanics and other principles when studying traffic flow.

Photo op with our former Christian Living Education and Physics teachers Mr Caligner and Ms Lemu-Solano

With our former CLEd teacher Mr Caligner and grade school buddy Jocel Roxas

I am very appreciative of our batch officers for the hard work they put in for this event to become the success that it was last night. I am also appreciative of the effort by some batchmates who are really busy people for attending the homecoming. The most notable among these people is Perci Intalan, head of TV5's creative and entertainment, who was a grade school buddy of mine. 

Now I am looking forward to a second silver jubilee celebration next year. Is a second 25th possible? In my case it is because of a circumstance I share with many of my Class of 1988 batchmates. We were accelerated back in 1984, which meant we skipped Grade 7. That led to our advancing to join the batch ahead of us who went through Grade 7 at Lourdes. As such, we left our grade school batch behind who will be celebrating their 25th year of graduation from high school next year as the Class of 1989. I got to talk with some old grade school friends and similar to other batches at LSM with the same situations, they regard us "accelerants" as their batchmates. And so next year, even as part of 88, we could celebrate with our grade school batch on their silver jubilee. After then, we hopefully can look forward to the next milestone...

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