Bunch ’67

DELA CERNA

July this year has been a reunion-filled month what with six reunions I attended. Five of these reunions were with my former students: two from St. Catherine’s School (Batches ’71 and ’72), three from UP Cebu High School (’87, ’92 and ’77). The sixth one held just yesterday was a celebration with my College Golden Jubilarian Class ’67 of St. Theresa’s College Cebu. Despite the advanced technology, only very few (less than ten) could make it to our Golden Jubilee.

My college graduation album has been intact since we left college. I have the graduation floor and seat plan, the lineup of the graduates and the faculty and celebrant, pictures of the graduation ceremony. We were 42 graduates on April 15, 1967. Interesting to note that our batch had the most number of education graduates (7), three AB-BSE and four history majors. These four history majors made history when they defended their theses in public through a Symposium on the Orient at the STC Auditorium. Our batch also had a series of class activities called Specimens which exposed us to big audiences and discussing serious issues.

The most memorable event during the final year of the batch was the super Christmas production called “Christmas in the Visayas in the 19th Century” in December 1966 which interpreted the old daygon from Bantayan, a research find of May Ybañez in her requirement for a class with Sister Ma. Delia Coronel. The whole college population participated in the production. The College Glee Club sang the lengthy daygon of five parts and provided the accompaniment.

Last March, only five of us could meet for the first time regarding the homecoming this year. Since we are the Golden Juibilarians, we had to comply with the plans of the organizers. Each jubilarian class was assigned a color and a theme song for the presentations. Aqua blue was assigned to our group. The song assigned to us was “La Mer” (Beyond the Sea) which we did not welcome and so we decided to change the song that would fit the group. Then Lani Echavez-Paredes suggested “Both Sides Now” which we enthusiastically accepted.

Composed by Joni Mitchell in 1967 and popularized the same year, “Both Sides Now” version by the Brothers Four was the basis of our “liquid” presentation thanks to the resourcefulness of Fe Naputo-Reyes, for it fitted the three-minute requirement for each presentation. The Golden Jubilarians are grateful to Mary Rose Villacastin-Maghuyop for giving her time and creative skill to choreograph the presentation.

With “Both Sides Now” as our song for the Golden Jubilee, I had these reflections. Even to seeing “both sides” or multiple sides, we come to understand that while we have (depending upon our mood or stage of life) sworn to understand and know about the world, love and the meaning of our lives, we really don’t know these things after all.

It is not necessarily the fanciful ideals or the disillusioning heartaches that we recall; i.e, the things we perceived and experienced as real as the time. Rather it is the illusions of the world, love, and life that we recall — the recognition that our ideals and our heartaches are themselves illusions, and so too our thoughts and feelings about them.

We may blame clouds, others or even life itself as deterring us from our time course, yet there is wisdom in recognizing that blame is a game and an illusion and that how we recall life is our own responsibility.

We really don’t know anything for sure. And yet, in acknowledging this, we affirm that the illusions themselves are enough for us to carry on. We don’t need the control we thought we did. Life goes on, and we, in time, both need to let go and hold on. In either case, something will be lost and something gained.

Reunions are very valuable. Meeting your batchmates 25 years after, 30 years after, 40, fifty or even sixty or more years after is cause for celebration. At the STAA Homecoming yesterday, we enjoyed watching the Diamond Jubilarians dancing with gusto their opening number ably choreographed by Benjie Diola. We get to know where people we know and haven’t heard of or seen. For former students, it’s so heartwarming to see how successful they are and how they are raising their families, and to hear their gratitude and appreciation.