Why is it Advisable to Keep a Journal (Because I need to Remember that ASU was once named RMCAT...)
...because primarily, it is your backup memory when your mental hard drive bugged down. The following illustration (actually, from my electronic journal of 16 January 2009) drives this point.
"I attended for the first time a supposed regular reunion of the Batch 84 of the long gone Roxas Memorial College of Arts and Trades. It was grand as it was our silver alumni homecoming. We prided ourselves to be the last graduate of RMSAT and the first of RMCAT (Batas Pambansa 471 was signed into law by Marcos on June 10, 1983. Ma'am Tupas however noted that another reason that we should be proud of our batch is the fact that with us are two of the richest few personalities in Aklan--don't name them please). Our school (the Related Subjects Bldg) got burned when Tay Celoy was the administrator. It was later on absorbed by the Aklan Agricultural State College when by a republic act (RA 9055) the latter was made into a university making RMCAT the ASU Kalibo Extension.
"The venue for that particular reunion, I was informed earlier, was the Garcia Building (Why I always got this feeling that we are like the homeless Israelites of old and the Philistines of the later eras?). After I filled up the form, I heard nothing about its development (Pam was busy, I know). When yesterday morning as I went to a meeting with the DOLE personnel in Kalibo, I decided to linger a while in a motorcycle repair shop at Oyo Turong for the regular check up of my bike. While Oto, the mechanic, was tinkering with its electrical system, I received a call from an unlisted number.
"The call was from Charity, a friend who traced her roots in Balete and a classmate during my high school days. She reminded me of the reunion and when she knew that I was in Kalibo, invited me right away to drop by the Garcia Building just in front of the plaza. I obliged the invitation. But before going there, I detoured.... (Don't ask where)
"Upon finding my way to the classy building quadrangle, I overheard Diane exclaiming my name when people gathered there noticed my entrance. Everybody was greeting me simultaneously. To say the least, I was overwhelmed. Flooded with memories of old, my now overloaded mind acted out like a busy, virus-struck computer. While unexpectedly I remembered the names of batchmates whom I was only an acquaintance, there were those whose warmths were that of someone missing so much a friend and yet embarrassingly I can't recall their names or recognized their grownup appearance.
"Very very embarrassing, I should say. Tawi (M. Torre), Jingjing (J. Resos), Rolyn (Malolos), Dodo (C. Pador), Nimfa (I forgot her surname) and many more where people in the past I had spent special moments with but yet I've forgotten to recognize them. Rolyn and Jingjing most especially. Their names never registered while I was there with them for more than six hours. I happened to recall them only when I was driving dreamily along the highway across Feliciano. My reaction was to go back and pat their back again. The SMB in my head took flight as I was overwhelmed by discomfiture.
"As I neared home, I wondered about those friends and batchmates who failed to show up during the mass and the sadsad. I recalled that the crowd shrunk during the dinner at the quadrangle and something in the back of my head kept on searching for someone I missed. Ruben, Larry, Cedric, Marlon, Joel, Leah, Churchill... They were there. But where have all the rest gone? Where was Angeline, Blas, Virna, Jovy, Ferdinand...and who else I missed?
"Yeah, all systems are busy always, please try remembering things some other time."
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