The Pleasure Dome
Yesterday, I came back to an old town where for nearly a decade I came in and out of. Last night was Alumni Homecoming for all Ateneo de Zamboanga graduates and our batch (Batch 89) was one of this year's honorees. It felt a little strange that I had never been inside the Ateneo campus for nearly four years that the moment I stepped into it, I could not help but feel a little emotional. Just a little.
There was a grand parade earlier in the day but I had decided against joining it for reasons I could not really tell. Perhaps, I was just tired that day or maybe I was just overly conscious that I may appear as someone who came in from the grave; someone who was not that much around for a long, long time and then suddenly appearing in the scene. Luckily that night, there wasn't any such uncomfortable "getting to know again" stuff like "Where have you been all these years?"
You could say it is just an overreaction and I was not really so much as having been isolated from civilization since I also attended the homecoming about three years ago. Still, I could not help but feel like I hadn't been here for the longest time.
The night's program was exhilarating where no less than the president of the university, the ineffable Fr. William Kreutz himselfm starting the event with a very stylish picture show on wide-screen. There were music and dancing and the crowd was loud that at some point, it was howdy. I guess it was an ecstatic crowd.
An old friend, Major Victor Loon was around from Manila. He wasn't part of the high school batch but he just fitted into the group for having a lot of common friends. He was there as a grade school alumni.
The banker, Michael Lopez was a longtime friend that I have never seen and so we talk a little. He got this digital camera flinging around his neck and we spend a lot of posing here and there for digital posterity. There was the moneyman, Mr. Richie Bucoy (he works as an accountant) who I am to be grateful for reminding me of this year's event. I would have forgotten it easily. Herbano was also a guy I have not converse with in along while and he looked like he had not change a bit for he is still as noisy and as gregarious as I have last seen him.
This year a lot of my classmates from the Xavier section were present. They were more in numbers than the previous years. There was Jason Mendoza, the basketteer (he almost made it to the big colleges in Manila), Martin Renolla, a colleague from both Ateneo and Silliman, Balot Coronel, a present neighbor, James Kwan, the one we always know as the peanut eater (our teacher made him eat all the peanuts he was holding in a paper bag. Strictly no eating in the classroom he soon found out to his great dismay), and Daniel and Chino and Ulysees.Tony Ramos could not come.
With fireworks show that was incomparable ever, this year's celebration was clearly the best of them all, at least among all that I have attended going back to my college days.
I guess there is so much reason to celebrate now that Ateneo has become a University.
Perhaps, you would wonder why I titled this day's entry as "The Pleasure Dome". In my autobiography (A Prophet's Life), I have mentioned there that there is this place that I enjoyed so much and spent so many hours----this was the Ateneo Library. For me, the place was a pleasure dome since it had introduced into the mystical world of world literature---from Feodor Dostoyevsky towards Tom Conroy---and so many in between. I wouldn't have met Huckleberry Finn if not for the very expansive collection of books from the pleasure dome. One of these days, I may go back there just to reminisce. The place may not look the same now, but I expect its collection to be more and more expansive and variant. And that would be the day I am looking forward to.
There was a grand parade earlier in the day but I had decided against joining it for reasons I could not really tell. Perhaps, I was just tired that day or maybe I was just overly conscious that I may appear as someone who came in from the grave; someone who was not that much around for a long, long time and then suddenly appearing in the scene. Luckily that night, there wasn't any such uncomfortable "getting to know again" stuff like "Where have you been all these years?"
You could say it is just an overreaction and I was not really so much as having been isolated from civilization since I also attended the homecoming about three years ago. Still, I could not help but feel like I hadn't been here for the longest time.
The night's program was exhilarating where no less than the president of the university, the ineffable Fr. William Kreutz himselfm starting the event with a very stylish picture show on wide-screen. There were music and dancing and the crowd was loud that at some point, it was howdy. I guess it was an ecstatic crowd.
An old friend, Major Victor Loon was around from Manila. He wasn't part of the high school batch but he just fitted into the group for having a lot of common friends. He was there as a grade school alumni.
The banker, Michael Lopez was a longtime friend that I have never seen and so we talk a little. He got this digital camera flinging around his neck and we spend a lot of posing here and there for digital posterity. There was the moneyman, Mr. Richie Bucoy (he works as an accountant) who I am to be grateful for reminding me of this year's event. I would have forgotten it easily. Herbano was also a guy I have not converse with in along while and he looked like he had not change a bit for he is still as noisy and as gregarious as I have last seen him.
This year a lot of my classmates from the Xavier section were present. They were more in numbers than the previous years. There was Jason Mendoza, the basketteer (he almost made it to the big colleges in Manila), Martin Renolla, a colleague from both Ateneo and Silliman, Balot Coronel, a present neighbor, James Kwan, the one we always know as the peanut eater (our teacher made him eat all the peanuts he was holding in a paper bag. Strictly no eating in the classroom he soon found out to his great dismay), and Daniel and Chino and Ulysees.Tony Ramos could not come.
With fireworks show that was incomparable ever, this year's celebration was clearly the best of them all, at least among all that I have attended going back to my college days.
I guess there is so much reason to celebrate now that Ateneo has become a University.
Perhaps, you would wonder why I titled this day's entry as "The Pleasure Dome". In my autobiography (A Prophet's Life), I have mentioned there that there is this place that I enjoyed so much and spent so many hours----this was the Ateneo Library. For me, the place was a pleasure dome since it had introduced into the mystical world of world literature---from Feodor Dostoyevsky towards Tom Conroy---and so many in between. I wouldn't have met Huckleberry Finn if not for the very expansive collection of books from the pleasure dome. One of these days, I may go back there just to reminisce. The place may not look the same now, but I expect its collection to be more and more expansive and variant. And that would be the day I am looking forward to.
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