IMHO

Stuck In The 80's

My high school class celebrated our 20th year (eeek!) anniversary with a big celebration at the UPIS Multi a few weeks ago. Had other commitments at the time and wasn't able to catch up, but happily, I found that Monique I.A. had mailed me a copy of the souvenir programme. Once upon a time, I used to know every single person whom I graduated from UPIS with; now, I see some names and go "huh?? Who da?" My little contribution to the celebration, as featured in the programme (oh yes, I graduated from high school in 1985, and am darned proud of it!):

Deny it if you must, but you are undoubtedly a member of UPIS Class 1985 if…

10) “Kokak” means more to you than that movie starring Rachel Lobangco and Gabby Concepcion.
9) You remember when Michael Jackson was still black, Prince (formerly known as “The Artist, Formerly Known As Prince”) was always called “Prince,” and Oprah and Belinda Carlisle (who?!) were fat.
8) The ‘80’s music you once danced to is now called “classic.”
7) You own as many (or even more) cassettes, LP records, and VHS/beta tapes than CDs, VCDs, or DVDs.
6) You insist on calling the SM department stores (as in SM City, SM MegaMall, SM Centerpoint etc.) “Shoe Mart.”
5) You still call teenagers and younger people “bagets.”
4) You remember all the moves of the Vicor Dancers and The Tigers. And you know who the Gelboys are.
3) You blew your allowance - as well as a permanent hole through the ozone layer - on Dippity-Do and Aqua Net.
2) At least one of your classmates is a member of the House of Representatives…
- AND -
1) You yourself are legally old enough to be a Member of the Philippine Senate!

High school life oh my high school life, all my mem’ries kay ganda… Memories? How many memories do we have of those four years in the 1980’s, when Ferdinand Marcos was the only President we knew and Prince Charles had just begun living the fairy tale with Lady Di? When EDSA still had traffic lights and intersections we rode the Love Bus to school? When we swooned at the mere mention of Ralph Macchio, Phoebe Cates, or J.C. Bonnin? When Saturday mornings meant we didn’t get to sleep in and watch cartoons but instead bake under the sun and snap to attention whenever someone yelled “’tionnnnn…na!!” How many memories can our finite number of brain cells contain, and how many high school memories have we selected to retain in our minds and our hearts?

Collectively, as the UPIS Class of 1985, we can probably answer…A HECKUVA LOT.

Memories like the first day of class in a brand new school, with so many strange people and alien experiences to encounter. Of your first upperclassman crush, of the first high school love, of the first dance at Junior-Senior Prom. Of the tears and laughter, the joys and pains, the heartaches and heartthrobs – all of which don’t seem like much when you think back, but meant the biggest deal in the world back then. Of sleeping in the library, sweating over lunch in the Multi, screaming at inter-school soccer games. Of tormenting teachers, keeping track of the Top 40 on RT, and just trying to survive those teenage years.

All these experiences constituted the perimeter of our world as we then knew it – a world that was being rocked by the Iran-Iraq conflict, the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II and the murder of Ninoy Aquino, the famine in Africa, and a deadly new disease called AIDS. And yet all our “trivial” experiences at the most famous public high school along Katipunan have contributed to who we are now, perhaps much more so than the more “significant” global and national events that provided the backdrop to our growing-up years.

We look back at those school years through older eyes that have seen the passing of two decades, and remember the youthful innocence and blissful detachment from the concerns of our elders. Most of these concerns have been bequeathed to us, and we’ve long been in training to take over “the show.” Our childhood and teenage years in UPIS formed us into what we now are as adults, and - please God - formed us well…for the future that we were once told we would soon own is now in our hands for the shaping.

posted by Honey Oliveros @ 11:32 PM