Of tables and friendships (my high school story)

High school… *sigh* everytime I think of my high school life, I can’t help but smile.  For me, it is the peak of my student days, specifically my junior years.  III-Mapagkalinga… high school and beyond…

Some friends of mine usually asks me what in the world “Mapagkalinga” means to me (yes it translates to “caring” in English but no, that’s not what it implies). So in order to save my breath explaining to the curious or just plain nosy to ask, I’d just explain it here.

My high school buddies started out as four students (three girls, me, Bambi and Shen, and a guy, Sandy) having lunch together. All of us belong to the same junior year class of Mapagkalinga. Being a big campus, our school had three canteens. One we fondly call “Borneo” for who-knows-what reason; the Luncheonette and lastly, the Cafeteria. Since school canteens are infamous for the food they serve, ours is no exception. Oftentimes, we’d trudge along our lunchbox and just eat inside the classroom or plunk down at one of the unoccupied tables inside one of the canteens (if we can get away with it) so that we can save some money but more so to avoid trying the food they serve. But there are times when we’d be lazy enough not to bring our “baons” along, ergo, we’d have no choice but to buy from one of the canteens.

Of the three, we’d usually troop to the Cafeteria to try our luck there, praying to the heavens above that the cook was in a good mood that the most we’d get will be diarrhea. But lo and behold! The food wasn’t all that bad. We actually enjoyed our lunch. Add to the fact that Bam’s mom works there and she’d give us freebies every once in a while (ok, make that every other dayü).

Since the food wasn’t as bad as we first thought it to be, we were hardly surprised when we saw other classmates eating there. There were a group of about six guys and a girl from our class and one guy and a girl from the other class: Albert, Joerian, Emerson, Erwin, Reggie, Louie, Allan, Keith and Celeste. On the other table sat Jeff and Mike. Never really that close with each other, we would just acknowledge each other’s presence at first. For some reason, Jeff and Mike decided to have lunch with us. Shen eventually found her own niche at another group. Then, something happened between Albert and me, which I-am-trying-to-forget-right-now-so-I’m-not-gonna-waste-my-breath-explaining that caused the “merging” of the two groups.

Now, big groups like ours cannot easily find a table that can accommodate us all. What we’d usually do is go to the Cafeteria together and look for a table that can hold as many of us as possible, the rest settling at another table. Then one day, “it” stood out like a light at the end of the tunnel, a long table that can seat as much as twenty people. It wasn’t really a long table as what Presidential Table’s look like. It’s actually three dining tables’ placed one after the other and was draped with a table cloth. It is located at the rear end of the Cafeteria. It soon became The Table, Ang Lamesa in the vernacular. Our Table.

That was where we’d have our lunch everyday. For some reason, seldom do we see it occupied so we rightfully claim it as ours during lunch breaks. It was at The Table where we’d stay even after we’ve finished eating, making small talks, debating, arguing and playing our favorite game of popping the straw after finishing a bottle of Coke. Being a self-serving canteen, it was at The Table where we’d amuse ourselves by making the new-comers in our group carry our food trays back to the counter. Now, the bond that we shared as a group transcends our lunch breaks. We’d have fun even during practice for plays. We’d go out, watch a movie, eat out, pretend to be art connoisseurs by patronizing museums and the like, and basically, have fun. It also helped that our adviser then, Mrs. Lebrudo, instilled in us the value of unity, of considering each other as part of one big family.

This went on until the following year even when some members decided to have their own clique. Jeff and Mike hung out with the Magic Boys (you know, the card game), Keith transferred to another school, Louie, Reggie, Allan and Celeste had lunch with other people. But we remained friends with each other. Besides, there had been additions to our group. Since we were friends since our freshmen years, Macel, KJ and Imee joined up with us. Chris followed suit.

So there you have it. The story of my high school “barkada“. The friendship continues even after all these years. True, we had a lot of falling out. Albert and I are no longer a couple, Bam seldom comes with us, I had a falling out with Erwin and Imee but still, I’d like to believe that the friendship still remains. For true friends never really depart. They will always, ALWAYS, remain in the heart.

Cheers to all…