I'm quite sure that I've already mentioned that I was once an altar boy. I spent a good six years I think serving as an altar boy at our parish.
That church became my second home. There were Sundays when I would serve as many as five Masses. I've attended the weddings of hundreds of lovers I dunno. I've seen quite a few funerals. And there were also a number of baptisms. The six years I spent serving even led me to consider entering the seminary. I almost did, but things took a different turn.
Anyway, I met up with my batchmates during my altar boy days. When I was still fresh out of college, I used to see the guys frequently. We had an annual tradition - attend the Easter Vigil Mass then head over to Joseph's house. Joseph was our First Knight aka President of the Knights of the Altar.
My barkada included Joseph, Ryan, Dennis, Allan, Peter, Toby. Ryan is Joseph's cousin, who is about a year younger. Dennis, on the other hand, is one of the guys who influenced me a lot. Hehe! He was the one who introduced me to Lualhati Bautista and to Tony Perez which got me into serious trouble with my folks. Allan and Peter were my grade school classmates. Toby was Ryan's classmate.
But as the years went by, I saw them less and less. We were in touch though. I would get the invitation to the annual tradition, but I got preoccupied with certain things though. Eventually, I just stopped getting the invite. They probably got tired. Hehe!
Thanks to Facebook, we sort of reconnected again. Mark Zuckerberg, thank you for Facebook. Hehe! And last Thursday, while I was doing my text brigade to greet people, the plan to have a get-together was brought together. Fortunately, (almost) everyone was available.
Before meeting the guys, I attended the 11AM Mass. It was sort of weird being there again. Memories, good memories, came back. A huge chunk of my pre-adolescent/adolescent years were spent at that church and with the people I met up with. There have been several changes with how the church looked, but it still felt the same as the first time I served Mass.
After the Mass, Dennis and I took the trip down memory lane much further and walked around the grade school quadrangle. Man, that quadrangle was where I had good times during field demo, was humiliated because of basketball, enjoyed childhood playng cops and robbers, and had my first kiss with an upperclass man Boy Scout under the acacia tree (which was no longer there). Fine, the last one was a joke. Haha! Seriously, it is a joke.
Being there was just really good that we had to take some photos taken. I still remember the classrooms where we were assigned. I even remember my sections and my advisers. Hahaha! Really good to be there.
Afterwards, we headed to Asian Twist for lunch. That area of Retiro has really changed. It's starting to be really commercial. The place where Asian Twist is used to be just a huge house, and now it's a restaurant that served mostly good food. O ha, na-segue ko pa ang menu. Hehe! We got several dishes and most of them were yummy. The service was fast too even if there were quite a number of people.
From Asian Twist, we crossed the street for dessert and coffee at... drumroll please... Starbucks Retiro. Starbucks Retiro?! Who would've thought that there would one day be a Starbucks Retiro?! It's crazy. Haha! We just spent the next hour talking about our days as altar servers and of course, what's been happening with everyone's lives lately. I'm surprised to learn that some altar boys have already passed away (at such a young age!), that some who entered the seminary have already left, and that some are now married... with kids!!! It really has been a long time!
We parted ways around 3PM. I had to go to Trinoma to meet the sister of Bernice, and everyone else also had their own appointments. That was what made me realize that yeah, we're no longer the altar boys that we used to be. Before, we could hang out the entire day waiting for our next Mass appointment. Now, everyone has his own bigger/different life.
But what I really like though is that the friendship, the brotherhood (naks, insert teardrop from left eye here) that was formed back in 1992 (!!!) still exists to this very day.
For that I will always say, "Thanks be to God."
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