Saturday, January 14, 2006

Fifteen Years Later

I'm meeting my gradeschool bestfriend next month. It's been almost a year since I started work here in Manila but we've never had the chance to see each other yet. I guess we were too busy. But also partly because I am a little hesitant. For a whole lot of reasons.

First of all, I haven't seen her since we were in the fifth grade. Ten years old. I mean, that's a whole lot of time. Where do we start to catch up? Too many things have happened. How do you rank the most relevant ones? Did anything relevant happen, in the first place?

I am overwhelmed by the idea of being confronted with who I was and who I've become. I think that seeing someone so close to me from my past would force me to evaluate my life. A crash course on My Life 101. What happened, what changed. Did I become who I wanted to be when I was ten? I don't exactly remember what I wanted to be when I was a kid. I wasn't consistent, that's why. At one point, I wanted to be a doctor (Or I think it was just my mother who wanted me to become one). I don't remember wanting to spend six days a week in front of a computer, but that's what I ended up doing now.

I'm not worried that my life would pale in comparison to my friends. Because I like my life, despite the occassional annoyances. I've been through so many screwups in the past that I feel like I'm fairly equipped to face whatever's ahead.

I think my ten-year-old self wouldn't be too disappointed how I turned out to be.