Lourdes School Quezon City

I managed to find last weekend the yahoo groups for my graduating class in LSQC. It was great to see and read about what they have been doing after twenty years. I have spent the whole of this week reading the entries and that is why I have not blogged.

Because I left the school before I finished first year high schoo, my memories are mostly entrenched in those of elementary. It is like an unfinished movie in some ways.

One interesting aspect of the class' deliberations is the status of those like me who left the Philippines before graduation. At that young of an age, one does not control one's destiny. Parents are the key. If your parents want you to move, you move schools. I am glad to say that the class decided to consider anyone who seeks entry into the yahoo group as part of the batch. Their decision is very inclusive.

For some reason, I have also been missing the high school years and the college years in the Philippines. Though of course, if I had gone there, I would not have had the chance to integrate myself into American culture as much or as little as I did.

I suppose in some ways, because of my experience, there are only a few places where I feel at home. Whereas others have alumni groups or fraterneties, I have gotten to the point where I don't really feel like I belong. I just knew people over the years, but no social groups bind us.

One other aspect of the whole high school experience in the Philippines is that of puberty in an all-male school. In the beginning of my first year, the school was slowly integrating the school. I confessed to my classmates the crushes I had on teachers. Looking back on it, it was kind of cute. Here's a schoolchild attracted to a twenty year or thirty year old teacher.

The integration of the school is now complete. There are women in the different classes. Thank God. Hopefully, this will reduce the number of losers like me who could not for the life of us speak to women.