Blast from the past

Last night was the first official meeting of the organizing committees for JCA Batch '97's 10th Graduation Anniversary renunion. A fair number of people showed up (18, to be exact), and we pretty much dominated UCC Connecticut with all our boisterous chatter. In between hey-how-have-you-been-and-what-are-you-doing-now exchanges among everyone, Angge, ever our fearless (and very organized) leader, steered the evening's discussion and we managed to get some major details settled, with the consensus of all present.

It was heartening to see how enthusiastic some people are about the reunion, and how productive the planning session turned out to be. After much internal hemming and hawing, I volunteered to head the Solicitations committee. I figured, if I'm inevitably going to shell out for a sponsorship, I might as well drag others down with me. :p I also did it as a show of support for Angge, who is doing so much on behalf of the batch (as always), and it felt good to be once again sitting beside her and brainstorming, just as we did during our LEX days in college (EVP and IVP, reunited! =D).

It was also both funny and reassuring to see how little things have changed since high school, or at least how it seems that way when we all got together. The dynamic among people was just as it was in Jubilee: the noisy kids were cracking jokes and poking fun at one another; the quiet kids were still quiet, but would open up when engaged in conversation; the "smart" kids were directing things and maintaining a semblance of order (at one point, one of our rowdier boys pointed out, "Bakit hanggang ngayon yung mga matatalino pa rin ang leader? Kami naman!" to which everyone laughed). Everyone seemed to automatically revert to being a bunch of high school teens around one another. I suppose that's why some people aren't as keen about high school reunions as others-- perhaps they didn't have very good memories of high school to begin with. Or perhaps they feel like they've grown far beyond high school to relive it.

I used to balk at attending the first few batch Christmas parties some groups attempted to organize (those fizzled out after 2 or 3 years). Part of my excuse to myself was that I was enjoying college far too much to go back to my high school crowd. Another reason was I just didn't feel like facing people who didn't matter to me very much, people I never really talked to in high school, or people who made my life miserable in one way or another. But I think the simple reason was that I didn't like being reminded of who I was in high school, or at least the various incarnations of myself during those years that make me squirm in embarrassment to this day. However, I find that now, I still squirm, but I can also laugh at the same time. I think I'm now comfortable enough in my own skin, confident enough in who I am, that I can face anyone from high school and not feel inadequate, or awkward. Besides, you hope you've grown enough over the last 10 years to be able to face your past and come to terms with it, no matter how humiliating or disappointing or painful it was.

In any case, I'm committed to this thing for better or worse. Here's hoping our reunion is more successful than we expect, and that the hard work the committees will be putting in will pay off.