It’s been ten long years! Time flies by so fast. I can’t believe we’re celebrating our tenth year out of high school. We started texting and facebooking old friends to get everyone together for a grand reunion. After being out of touch (the last time we saw each other was when we were all looking nene and adjusting to adolescent acne and growth spurt), we’ll finally be able to take a pause from our usual routine today and reminisce about our usual routine for seventeen years (pre-school to high school for most of us) or for some, four hormone-raging years, a decade ago. Ah, the good ol’ high school life. It’s exciting to finally be updated about what’s been going in our lives. Some have gone the celebrity route while others are finishing their Ph.D’s; some are happily married while others may still be finding themselves. It’s going to be a thrilling blast from the past.
We entered high school in 1995 eager to take this new leap in life, together, as a batch. We embraced the green color assigned to us; we held it up with pride. Eniors 99 was what we named ourselves, adding a touch of spunk to the name, befitting the batch that lived through all four years of high school turning our teachers’ heads. We were surely one confident batch. We knew that our teachers thought of us as a remarkable bunch but the truth is it was the other way around. It was our teachers who turned our heads.
I remember back in high school, we took our subjects with seriousness but quite distinct from each other. I know our teachers kept mentioning that all of these subjects are interrelated, but I guess when you’re right in the middle of tests, recitations, homework, projects, and competitions, you can’t really see the bigger picture. They were simply subjects. They were challenging, fun, and exciting and they developed us to bond with each other and form friendships, but to our adolescent mind it was simply that. The deeper lessons these taught us have not been processed.
Now that ten years had gone by, we look back and realize that the decisions we make now, the way we live our lives have greatly been influenced, consciously or not, by these deeper lessons learned in our adolescence.
We realize that Math is not just a set of abstract numbers and complicated equations that Ms. Almeda loved to use to challenge our days. Math is equal to questions – questions in our lives that we whine about, rant to our friends with in hope that they disappear when we wake up the next day. One picturesque high school memory I have is our last class day with Ms. Galera when she gave as her parting words, “Lessen your whining.” Not everything in life comes our way, not the way we wished it would, but we are always given variables and formulas to help us solve the equation.
We realize that Social Studies is not just about drawing memorization aids for important people, events, dates, and places in history. Social studies is not at all about these details. Mr. Fernandez once said, “You’ll forget about all these details years from now, but what you will carry with you is the discipline gained from this process of learning.” What we carry with us is the value in looking back, in tracing down our roots, in remembering where we came from, and in never forgetting why and how we have come to be who we are today.
We realize that English is not just about being fluent with Beowulf, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s How do I love thee, and William Ernest Henley’s Invictus. English, as a subject, is the language of relationships. It’s about listening and telling stories of real live people then and now, our successes and trials and the process we go through in between. It’s about sharing, learning, and growing with each other. It’s about touching lives just as Ms. Windsor touched mine.
We realize that Filipino is not just about re-enacting the works of Rizal and Balagtas in plays and choral competitions. It’s about living the love they have for our country in our own simple ways, applicable in our world today.
We realize that Christian Living is not just about remembering what happened to Jesus back in time but appreciating what Mr. Tiongco emphasized, that God is love.
Ten years ago, these subjects sounded distinct from each other. Now that we look back, we realize that each has imparted with us a life lesson that we use to discern daily decisions we make. I guess that’s why they’re called subjects. They are materials from which things are made.
We entered high school in 1995 eager to take this new leap in life, together, as a batch. We embraced the green color assigned to us; we held it up with pride. Eniors 99 was what we named ourselves, adding a touch of spunk to the name, befitting the batch that lived through all four years of high school turning our teachers’ heads. We were surely one confident batch. We knew that our teachers thought of us as a remarkable bunch but the truth is it was the other way around. It was our teachers who turned our heads.
I remember back in high school, we took our subjects with seriousness but quite distinct from each other. I know our teachers kept mentioning that all of these subjects are interrelated, but I guess when you’re right in the middle of tests, recitations, homework, projects, and competitions, you can’t really see the bigger picture. They were simply subjects. They were challenging, fun, and exciting and they developed us to bond with each other and form friendships, but to our adolescent mind it was simply that. The deeper lessons these taught us have not been processed.
Now that ten years had gone by, we look back and realize that the decisions we make now, the way we live our lives have greatly been influenced, consciously or not, by these deeper lessons learned in our adolescence.
We realize that Math is not just a set of abstract numbers and complicated equations that Ms. Almeda loved to use to challenge our days. Math is equal to questions – questions in our lives that we whine about, rant to our friends with in hope that they disappear when we wake up the next day. One picturesque high school memory I have is our last class day with Ms. Galera when she gave as her parting words, “Lessen your whining.” Not everything in life comes our way, not the way we wished it would, but we are always given variables and formulas to help us solve the equation.
We realize that Social Studies is not just about drawing memorization aids for important people, events, dates, and places in history. Social studies is not at all about these details. Mr. Fernandez once said, “You’ll forget about all these details years from now, but what you will carry with you is the discipline gained from this process of learning.” What we carry with us is the value in looking back, in tracing down our roots, in remembering where we came from, and in never forgetting why and how we have come to be who we are today.
We realize that English is not just about being fluent with Beowulf, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s How do I love thee, and William Ernest Henley’s Invictus. English, as a subject, is the language of relationships. It’s about listening and telling stories of real live people then and now, our successes and trials and the process we go through in between. It’s about sharing, learning, and growing with each other. It’s about touching lives just as Ms. Windsor touched mine.
We realize that Filipino is not just about re-enacting the works of Rizal and Balagtas in plays and choral competitions. It’s about living the love they have for our country in our own simple ways, applicable in our world today.
We realize that Christian Living is not just about remembering what happened to Jesus back in time but appreciating what Mr. Tiongco emphasized, that God is love.
Ten years ago, these subjects sounded distinct from each other. Now that we look back, we realize that each has imparted with us a life lesson that we use to discern daily decisions we make. I guess that’s why they’re called subjects. They are materials from which things are made.
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