2 Decades of Friendship Renewed

They flew in from all over the world. Raj from New York, David from Shanghai, Chew from Singapore. Raj had business in Manila but basically, they wanted to meet up with us, their former classmates in grad school at Philly.

Greg texted me early this morning asking me to join him and wife Zsa Zsa at Manila Pen to meet 3 of our former Philly school mates with whom we had 2 years of unforgettable experiences.

I was eager to go but some work kept me busy till past 3 PM. As soon as that was out of the way, I called Greg and he said yes, come over since they were all still talking at the lobby. Hubby drove me there, accompanied by C2 and M1. They went off to kill time at nearby Ayala Center.

These guys have not changed! Chew, with Russel Reynolds Associates (a headhunter company), could still talk up a storm! Chew was especially close to me and my Pinay roommate (actually…closer to her, if you know what I mean). But whenever he was around, Chew would regale us with all sorts of stories. He had a wide range of discussion topics, from the inane to the cerebral. Humor was aplenty. And his calligraphic talents somehow influenced me to begin writing poetry using a real calligraphy pen.

David was and still is the sidekick of Chew. They have always been inseparable and despite their busy schedules all over the world, manage to sync their calendars to get together and even come to Manila together! As we continued to reminisce, the conversations were familiarly punctuated with their Singaporean “lah”s.

The last to join the group was Raj who arrived from a business meeting with a couple of guys from his office. Maybe except for having grown sideways a bit, Raj was still the old Raj who always had something funny to say. We had a good laugh when Raj told us of how earlier school reunions he had attended had people enumerating their career achievements but as years went by and more so, in his latest reunion at Philly, our school mates were already talking about taking it easy, enjoying the good life, and so on. Age indeed mellows even the hardest workaholics!

All 3 of them are happily married, with children. It’s so amazing to think how all of us who were so young and carefree then are now all parents, raising kids of similar ages and talking about parenting! And of course, when friends come together, there is always something new that we learn about some others in our international batch:

– that the “crush ng bayan” is reported to have gained some unwanted poundage

– that someone’s roommate “came out” and is now openly gay (and the roommate, during our schooldays, was completely clueless)

– that a common friend is now Singapore’s ambassador to Pakistan

– that so-and-so is now head of this large multinational company, etc.

But one thing that had us planning was the grand reunion for our batch next year in Philly. I have been iffy about going (thinking of the expense and all) but if I find out that more and more of my friends here in Manila and abroad plan to go, well I just might tighten my belt beginning NOW in order to make it there too!