Somewhere Only We Know

It’s been quite a long journey. I am no longer that small girl in her first day of nursery school, but her curiosity has remained. I have changed so much. Before entering high school I was this annoying kid who was more boy than girl. I refused to wear dresses and I spent much of my time playing video games with my guy friends. I only changed when I reached my second year. I got new friends and lost some of my old ones. I met Ivan, one of my favorite people in the whole world, and I remember how even then I liked to tease him about his sexuality (he is straight but others don’t think so because of his shy and awkward nature). My Britpop obsession began in my sophomore days. I like to think it was the early 90’s British music that changed me and made me a better person.

 

Junior year was better, though. I remember how in our junior year our class took home the gold trophy of  the school play competition. I laughed when our classmate, Matthew suddenly went down on one knee and offered his hand for a dance to our level leader. I remember the feeling of landing my right fist on the cheek of my enemy, William, when he gave me another one of his annoying glares. I wept as I hugged my childhood friend, Zachary, goodbye when I learned he was already leaving the country. I remember the Farewell party and how we scattered roses on the floor to the surprise of our adviser, whose eyes filled with tears as she gave us her speech.

 

And senior year…How can I forget it? The class I was put in was fun even though I was separated from my best friends. I got to hang out with other people, experience the fear caused by the iconic ‘terror teachers’, and play pranks on our Math teacher, Sir Jhun. I remember the stress caused by all the projects and responsibilities of the seniors toward the younger levels. I remember the PALARO clearly and how we cheered for the seniors’ most loved classmate, Ray, as he served he ball with such vigor everyone was struck with awe. I became closer to childhood friend, Alfonso, and even experienced writing a song together. I became Jenna’s ask box about books and movies and did my duty as the class artist by doodling on my seatmates’ arms and legs. We bitched about CAT during Fridays and panicked over our assignments and the forever dangerous Physics exams. We had wild parties while waiting for the teachers to enter the room and made jokes about what went on in the teacher’s faculty. I even learned how to use a tazer (he even brings knives to school) thanks to my seatmate for two quarters, the future engineer, Arthur. I learned shocking secrets about our batchmates from my companions Joan, Gem, Yana, Aila, Aileen, Kaz, and Roneth. And I don’t suppose I will ever forget about Katlyn and I trying to win the heart of our classmate Jonathan (just a joke because we don’t really like him but he really is good-looking in a young, girlish, male model sort of way). And of course, Prom. I participated in a few “Will You Be My Prom Date?” announcements and even got to witness the best, most romantic one which was between Claude and Jerelou. Though I didn’t have a prom date (which is okay because the prom in our school isn’t really about boy-girl relationships) I danced with a lot of my friends and even got to slow dance with some unexpected people. What I enjoyed most was the rave dancing and the way the boys pulled a frightened Ma’am Dhalz to the dance floor and began to body bump her. I even witnessed Ivan kiss his girlfriend Denyel at the third play of “So Close”. Thank god for them!

 

Senior year was bittersweet. I became even closer to old friends and even gained new ones but I gained a few enemies and lost one of the most important people in my life. There are days when I regret the ‘incident’ because it’s the reason why my oldest best friend suddenly began ignoring me. But most of the time, I don’t because it’s made me stronger. I was able to prove that I’m not the quiet girl everyone thinks I am. I was able to make them see that I’m a fighter and when someone does something bad to my family, I definitely won’t just sit back. The person I fought has already made up with me and past is past so I don’t understand why my best friend will no longer talk to me. Ivan advised me to just forget about her but four years has been too long. And I can wait forever.

 

Well, now I am an official alumni of Divine Light Academy. And even though I’ve said bad things about our school, complained of its system and some of the teachers, part of me will always be a student of DLA.

 

There’s a bigger world out there, bigger than prom, intramurals, and academics. So good day and good luck to all of us.

 

 

Two of my very best friends. We’re inseparable.

Ivan ❤ My best guy friend. He's always there when you need him.

Graduation Lyrics?

Intro

Been letting all those days

All that time slip away

But now the curtains are closing

And everything’s going

Wait a minute, please

I feel we’re going too fast

Press pause then rewind

Take me back to the past

Do you still see the days

Of laughing in hallways

Or running down the streets

Wearing hearts on our sleeves

And there were

No tears, no fears, no thoughts of goodbyes

No doubt that there’s a light

Shining brightly for us

Bridge:

All the words that we said

All the steps that we take

They left marks on the floor

So when we walk out the door

They’ll always remember

Al ways remember us

So now

 

CHORUS:

Here we are

Breaking the high walls

Raising our voices

Here we are

Faced with the crossroads

Taking our chances

With the world and its offer

Be it pain or disaster

We’ll let it come our way

Cause we know that we won’t break

Here we are, Here we are

Interlude

When ten years pass

Will we still see each other

Walk down memory lane

If the skies have turned grey

And in our reunions

While we talk of our lives

Will the moment still be sweet?

Or will we just drift away?

(Insert short instrumental)

Well, for now

Chorus

Flip the pages of our yearbook

Try to take a good look

At the pictures of your friends

And all the teachers that you had

These people that you miss

Those moments of shared bliss

Hold on to those days

Hold on to those years

Hold on and remember

Hold on

Chorus

(fade out)

I know, cheesy, but it’s a graduation song. That’s our project for music: make your own graduation song. It’s actually a competition. Two groups per class, then the winner that competes with the three others winners. It’s not an easy thing to win, especially since the good musicians are spread out.They’ll judge the lyrics first. I wrote everything except half of the chorus which was written by Alfie (http://alfonsobassig.wordpress.com/) and so far, the chorus is the only part that has a tune.

Senior year is so stressful. And this isn’t the only project we have that’s hard. We also have to make a video for our Health class, advertising proper care of our heart. If I could only suggest that the best way to keep us healthy was to not bombard us with these projects…And then we have to make a school website for our Computer class. Then our English project is this resume thing that I don’t really understand and for Filipino we have this monologue thing that remains a mystery to me and also that Physics buzzer project.

No sleeping tonight.

Again.

Me and my extremely messy handwriting.