Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Renewing old ties


I was in my office, going over some files, when the head of our security entered the office and told me that last week, a former classmate dropped by and was looking for me. Since i did not report for work last week, he left a contact number. It turned out that my visitor was no less than my old high school classmate and "dance of joy" partner Rommel Cabalu. It was a pleasant surprise, especially since we haven't seen each other for about fifteen years. I was able to talk to him on the phone and i encouraged him to join our e-group. I must admit that high school wasn't exactly memorable for some of our classmates. Some were the butt of jokes and still some were the object of continuous bullying and other "harmless" pranks. In hindsight, i think this is the reason why our batch can never truly asseble together as one group. SOme don't feel comfortable with the fact that they might still be the butt of jokes and others simply harbor ill feelings. In fact, the strain is evident if you look at our grouping system. I belonged to the lowest group (Group 4) while my elementary buddies belonged to the top two groups. I think it is important for us to reach out to our batchmates, especially those we may have done wrong to, in order for old wounds to heal. Only then can we truly be one solid group, when we learn to reach out and bridge the differences that once kept us apart.