COLLEGE MEMORIES part 3

REMEMBERING ADAMSON UNIVERSITY

The world did not end after all when my Mom learned that I did not push through my plan to be a Chemist. I returned to writing, the same course which I have started in 1958..It took me 8 years to finish a course which I could have finished in 4 years if I stuck to it in UST in 1958..Oh well, maybe my sis and brod had an inkling that I shifted my studies again because I was not really studying. It is hard for you to hide anything from your siblings especially if you live in the same house ( or boarding house )..Then they blabbed it to my Mom and so my Mom had already an idea what degree I finished.

"I thought you finished Chemistry?" she asked nonchantly."Well, I found the Chemistry subjects difficult for me", I said..

"Anyway I finished a degree and I had a job waiting for me in our hometown." I was referring to the teaching position offered to me by Mr. Amado Esteban at the Rizal Academy. Mom liked it because I would still be living at home ( at least for a while..)

So Graduation Night came and went..I received my Diploma. Then we decided to go to a good Chinese restaurant in Manila. I looked for my friends in the crowd. Didnt see anybody, just a blurry mass of people milling about. We left Adamson immediately, took a taxi and headed for that restaurant and I never felt so good ( and at the same time so tired ). We left for Asingan the next morning.

Little did I know that if I contacted Fr. Mezquita, CICM, our Spiritual Director  during the next few days, destiny could have changed because he was reserving a teaching position for me in Adamson High School. But I did not know. I was just too eager to go home again, to be in Asingan once more and take up where I left off. I did not visit him in the next few days even just to say good bye. If I did, I might be typing  different stories from the ones I have been putting in!

Again, it was a bitter-sweet goodbye to some dear friends in school the loyal ones who formed the core of the SCA and the choir.

***

It was a fateful day when, as a newcomer to Adamson, I was lonely, homesick and looking around to make some friends. There was this room that said Adamson University Student Catholic Action meeting..Come In. So I went in..

I met people there who were looking for the same things as I was: friends, recognition, a chance to belong. One of the first ones I met was a guy from Mandaluyong: outsideof Mandaluyong. We usually call it OUTSIDE refering to the residential areas because Mandaluyong in the Philippines is a mental hospital or asylum during that time. It was a nut house, a loony bin, a cuckoo's nest..

This guy was my first friend in Adamson and in the SCA. His name is Ruben delos Reyes. He stood by me from day 1 in school and also beyond graduation night. Years after the Commencement exercises, I still saw him ( and also a host of other brothers and sisters in the club ). In fact, some of them came to Pangasinan with Fr. Mezquita and sang during my wedding day.

Ruben thought I was an ex seminarian as he was. He was short, always clean shaven and neat, soft spoken and VERY GOOD in music.He does not read music but he can learn a tune two or three times after hearing it. So we formed a group and others ( both talented and not so talented ) soon joined us )..Soon we started rehearsing Christmas carols--in September. The school was not yet bought by the CICMs at that time so the faculty were kind of leery at us. We practiced in a vacant room because the Auditorium was being used as a classroom. Then the teacher at the next room would come in and break our group because our rehearsals were disturbing his class! We have to go somewhere else and continue singing there  until another teacher would barge in and stop us..!

But that Christmas, we went around Manila in a rented jeep and visited some friends who donated money for our club after we sang them a set of carols. Our singing was already good! It was done in harmony.

 Ruben was the bass singer, I was the conductor, of course..There was Charlie from Los Banios, tenor and more women ( the sopranos and altos ) because not many men like to join choirs. They called it "sissy stuff.."

But we enjoyed that Christmas season..I was able to visit so many houses in Manila  and aside from the money they donated, they also served such delicious snacks.

The group would drop me off at my boarding house at 11:00 pm or 12:00 midnight..Had no more chance to study, of course. But I never had any more Science subjects anyhow. Most of my subjects were already about writing . But the thing is, I started enjoying my College life and I found friends who liked me..And when I went  back to Asingan after the college semester, I hanged out with my old friends in Asingan who were stillsinging at church.It was a good set up. Life, it seemed, had started to be good to me.

***

And so it came to pass,  that the next year, there was a general election for officers of the SCA..We had this picnic in Tagaytay. After lunch, we held an election. Most of the people there were choir members. Somebody nominated me. Somebody closed the nomination. It was seconded. I won the Presidency by unanimous decision. It was the most biased election I ever saw in my life, but I loved every minute of it!

***

( to be continued )