This is it. You didn’t expect Marcelle, of all people, not to write about his own graduation, did you? The emotion runs high right now, which adequately explains the throwback to third person for most of the time. Indulge me. :)

Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)
by Baz Luhrmann

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of 2004...

Wear Sunscreen

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice- now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand
the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years
you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how
much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind
the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing
this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. What ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own..

Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room. Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get,
the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time it’s 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen...

Everybody's free, everybody's free, everybody's free
Everybody's free, everybody's free, to feel good, to feel good

Brother and sister together will make it through oh, huh yeah
Someday a spirit will take you and guide you there
I know you've been hurting ,but i've been waiting to be there for you
And I'll be there, just helping you out whenever I can

Everybody's free ohh yea yeah
Oh Every ho yeah
Oh to feel good
Ohh to feel good*
(** chorus :
Everybody's free, everybody's free
Everybody's free, everybody's free, everybody's free, to feel good)

.:When The Hype Is Over:.

As far as Marcelle can see, when the hype is over, graduation is pretty much all that it’s cracked up to be. The roller coaster of emotions that engulfs one’s whole being is a rush that few events in your own life can ever quite match, much less surpass. College graduation is all the more special, knowing that this is your final salvo. Your last chance to see some of your friends before all of you become far too busy to enjoy the things you got away with when you were still in college. Your last chance to drop feelers to someone you liked all this time, especially those who… err… didn’t show up at the Blue Roast. Ultimately, parting is such sweet, sweet misery, as the cliché goes.

I’d be the first to admit that I was more or less anticipating that the waterworks would just come on for me that night, but what do you know? It just didn’t happen. I guess that for all the “lasts” graduation happens to pose to all of us, I, for one, don’t really feel any sort of closure upon graduating. I’d rather view it as a kind of transition that all of us made, where some things will change, and some things will still stay the same. I know Jen Simons was crying for most of the time, I think Rose was as well, among a lot of other people. But before we begin to talk about what happened after all of us have thrown our “diplomas” into the air out of sheer joy over the closing of this chapter, let’s look at the things that transpired on the day itself, leading all the way to this indescribable and incomparable moment. Don’t ask me to play the numbers game for that day, because I had more than I could count. :)

.:A Morning That Felt Like Eternity:.

Chico and Delamar were kind enough to start my day off quite optimistically by greeting me on the air. So my mom and I didn’t take too long, and we went straight off to the ADMU High School Covered Courts for the Baccalaureate Mass, where my mom was having fun pointing out all the priests she knew, as she was also an alumna of ADMU. In any case, it seems Kendra’s father is an acquaintance/friend of my parents, as the name on the list seemed extremely familiar…

The mass in itself was pretty nice. The sermon was prepared, though. Too prepared, that is. I would’ve rather had a casual sermon from the priest, and then he’d end up trying to scramble for some way of linking whatever he had to say with the actual theme of the mass. Still, it wasn’t so bad. I wasn’t around too many familiar people, but I had to make it a point to find most of the people I know, particularly from the SOM and S&E courses, whom I’d have a harder time finding since they’d be graduating today. That’s the nice and the sad thing about our graduation: it’s short, but you end up being robbed of the chance of meeting some of your friends from the other schools for one last time, the way I didn’t run into Rowena or Kim…

Afterwards, my mom left to go home, and I was simply making the most out of my time. I found Sarah Lee, and I was pretty sure Cami wouldn’t be too far off. I had pictures taken again, this time from my phone (I swear. A new, reliable digital camera would be in order for me soon.). Cami wrote a dedication on her picture to me, and I have to reiterate: the minute she found out that I liked her, she never let me hear the end of it. Even the dedication was testament to that…

To My #1 Fan:

You like me! You reeeeeally like me!

Good luck with everything! See you around! :)

-Cami

Sarah was laughing at me for the most part. Now that she knows that Cami knows about it for sure, I guess she was prolly going to end up chiming in on me as well. Still, it was all good. I had fun talking with them, and Sarah had a pretty nice thing to say to me on her dedication… let’s just say that I didn’t even realize I was doing what she said until she pointed it out…

Ei Marcelle,

Cheers! We are graduating (Or have graduated.)! I thank you for all the witty remarks (Witty? That’s a first! :) - Marcelle) you made to keep the classes from being boring. Hope to hear you on RX 93.1! Take care now!

-Sarah

Also ran into Diane after that bit, and then I went out to start getting myself ready for the SOH and SOSS segment of the practice. I was trying to find Eden and Daph at the time, though Eden wasn’t even there yet (Missed our practice completely.), and Daph was outside, so I had to meet with her later. The anticipation throughout the whole affair was plainly electric. The practice was relatively smooth, with only one retry, and then Fr. McNamara was extremely fun, and so forth. I didn’t really get to thank and congratulate Kendra properly, as we were both busy for the most part, her being obviously more occupied than I ever was that day…

While we were lining up, the honor students of each course were asked to be first before the alphabetical listing. What made this amusing was that April Rojales simply appreciated this setup more than anyone else, as she still had certain things to consider… ah, well. At least that’s out of her hair by then. I was between Dior and Pia Faustino, so I never had a dearth of interesting conversations, and behind Pia was Carren Jao. Willard was in front of Dior. What can I say? Marcelle was sandwiched between some of the greatest minds of this year’s Comm Batch. The Comm students were, according to my count, the second or third program with the most number of honor students behind Management and M.E., though I may have been mistaken with the latter.

After the practice, I then exchanged pictures with Daph. She’s a really great person, and I realize why she placed pretty high in the CP list for the longest time (Have the rankings changed? Find out soon!). I’m glad to have known a person as great as she is, and I’m pretty sure that like most of the other friends I’ve had in college who do matter, I’d well keep in touch with them all, somehow. Hence, exactly why I keep this weblog…

Hi Marcelle,

What can I say? You’re one interesting person talaga! Hehe :) I hope we’ll run into each other often in the future. I know you’ll make it big one day (In your own way.). Good luck and TC always!

Keep In Touch!
Daph

Went online for a bit before going back to the High School area to hopefully look for people like Jack, Clarence, and Adi. Found nearly all of them, truth be told. I also got grad pics from them, although not in Adi’s case. She said she didn’t want to run out of them so soon. I’ll take her word for it. I was then about to go back, when I ran into Daph again. We had pictures together (The sunlight wasn’t kind to us. Ergo, our shots were shadowy…), and I then wished her well for one last time before she graduated (I don’t think I’d be able to show up at their graduation… no invites for me…). It was great.

Jack was likewise her charming self when I was talking to her, and Dione wasn’t being awkward around me anymore. In fact, she was the friendliest she’s been to me throughout the time we’ve known each other. John and Jeci were around as well, and they were pretty cool people. Bobby Benedicto had spiked hair, and I must say, that jabroni, like him or hate him, does deserve some measure of credit for all the things he’s done. Afterwards, it was lunchtime…

.:Oh, This Is Good:.

Elbert was with someone whose name escapes me right now over at Blue Skies, playing Battlefield. After they were done, we went to KFC, where Peppy popped in on us shortly thereafter. Everyone had a good laugh over Sacha’s very disturbing comments about her computer (“Pleasurable” was never quite a word I’d use to describe a computer… nor would I refer to it by inches without saying “monitor” after each measurement.), and when Peppy quoted Sach as saying that she’s “more keen on smaller sizes now than bigger sizes”, I immediately quipped at Elbert…

Marcelle: Elbert, puwede ka na! Maliit pala yung size na gusto niya, kaya pala wala akong pag-asa, e. (Elbert, you’re okay! She actually wants a small size. No wonder why I don’t stand a chance.)

Lots of gay jokes thrown about, especially questioning Elbert’s taste in… men. Charles? Chinese? Check. Glasses? Check. Flat-chested? Check. Female? Uhh… not even all the checks can make for an exception, you see. I just felt bad for Gio, as he’s not graduating…

We then headed off to CCHQ, and I ran into Abby and Bro along the way. Poor Abby lost her bag. Someone stole it from her, and I swear, the timing was really lousy. I’m glad Abby’s not like me, though, so she didn’t let that setback ruin her day. She is the Program Awardee, after all… (And upon further investigation, I would’ve been third or fourth in line, so no amount of “tidying up my resume” could’ve upped my standing, anyway. With that being said, *poof* went the “shoulda, coulda, woulda”. They are, after all, the last words of a fool…)

Peppy was having fun looking at the Chobits cards. I swear… Peppy and I have racked up more inside jokes in a span of one semester than Elbert and I have in two years. Must be the really fertile common ground…

.:Here We Are, Born To Be Princes Of The Universe:.

Pardon the gender insensitivity of the title of this section. Would’ve taken the impact away if I went “princes and princesses”. Ergo, a bit of indulgence would help Marcelle along here…

While the SOH and SOSS graduates were around the High School area again, I ended up seeing Jason, and his former S.O., Tin. Cammy (Gah! I know too many Cammy’s!), Elbert’s S.O., was likewise there. We had a few pictures, and then finally, Grace came along. I was happy, really. She made my day complete, and though I can’t post the whole thing with the pictures yet, rest assured they’ll be up soon enough. Arguably the best hug I ever had for the entire day came from Grace. It was as though I was hearing her promise me over and over that everything will be all right, and things can only get better for us from this point on.

My mom and my stepdad soon arrived thereafter, and they were chatting a bit with Grace before she left. Would’ve wanted her to be there for the ceremonies, but she’s also graduating the following day, and had to treat her hair for the momentous occasion. Soon enough, I was already hanging around the waiting area for the graduates, where I was sharing some nice chatting with Don and Darn, as we were talking about how our thesis went. Marcelle had a flash of arrogance there, though…

Marcelle: It was better for me to pick Imo, because I didn’t think having personal matters here and there could always be beneficial. Besides, I ended up having a great friend in Imo after the fact. Imagine if Abby were my thesis partner…

Don: But Abby doesn’t need a thesis partner.

Marcelle: Neither did I. (And truth be told, neither did Imo. But it helped! It helped! Two brilliant minds are better than one… :) )

Don: Whoa! Hanep ka naman bumanat, Marcelle! (Whoa! What a comment, Marcelle!)

I then found Elbert, and he did me quite a favor… he took a picture of me and Abby. Think about it… we’ve been friends for eight years, but this is the first time we had a picture together. I swear, this was the first… Dione was thinking if Bro would get jealous, though. I think Abby would get jealous if I had a photo with Bro, but I digress ::winks:: . Didn’t get to hobnob much with Eden or Diane afterwards, though (There’ll be more time for that in the future somehow…). Glenn was kind enough to introduce me to Jonsi, though, who apparently shares my taste for the Chinese culture… I ought to add him to my LJ list soon… ran into old friends like Luis Geronimo and John Paul Calumpang as well.

I had unexpected exchanges of pictures with Zen and Je-An, but they were very great, nonetheless. I especially appreciated their comments, as it simply made me feel all the more justified with how I carried myself for the past four years. Je-An and Zen weren’t exactly two of my biggest fans during my first two years in college, so having all of that overshadowed by the good times really made me realize that we’ve all come a long way.

From Zen:

Marcelle!

One of the great minds of our batch :P A dj, a wrestling fan… who knows what else you’ll be able to accomplish after the grad :P Good luck in your endeavors!

-Zen :P

Even I would have to admit, though, that Zen sounds better on the air than I do… ah, well. I know she’ll be doing very well in the future, though. She’s got that drive to succeed…

From Je-An:

Marcelle…

Hey! Congrats on ur graduation! :) a well-deserved one… hope u fund ur place when we get in2 d real world… we’re all anxious, but what d heck? We’re Comm all the way! :)

Ingat!
Je-An

All the best wishes you gave me can and will also apply to you, Je-An. :) You earned it.

.:Shall We March?:.

As Macho Man’s entrance music (Pomp And Circumstance.) played throughout the HS Covered Courts, we started walking in, and I noticed my mom happened to be seated beside Luis’ mother. I also saw Mr. Jim Paredes taking photographs along the way. Anyways, we marched in, then after the opening fanfare, Kendra gave her valedictory address. She was very tongue-in-cheek about it, if a bit not-so-PC, but overall she didn’t sound so stuffy or formal, which actually helped. I know a lot of people feel that it should’ve been Bobby Benedicto or Pablo Singson up there as Valedictorian, but I stand behind Kendra on this one… the quip on her being in PAGASA after graduation sounded a bit true to form, though, considering her specialty in Physics.

Afterwards, Fr. Bernas spoke, and he was likewise very entertaining. I really liked his message about trying to restore some sanity into this country, and how scary it is to speak to graduates, compared to speaking to the Supreme Court. He was very witty, and he really captivated the audience here…

A bit more fanfare later, and the graduates were being announced. The people were popping heavily for the honor students (Though significantly less for the Honorable Mentions. Don’t do that! Some of them needed just half a grade more to get to Cum Laude! I should know: ) !), the UAAP players, and Maricar, the mom who decided to study college in her 30’s or 40’s, I believe. However, the Comm students just brought the house down. Abby had arguably the most applause when she was announced as the Program Awardee (Pardon me if I did a 180 and I’m now beaming over her like Hades.), and Trixie got her fair share as well. She happened to be Magna Cum Laude, after all… still, who got the most applause is beside the point.

I stood on that stage, and the emotions were all there. Like Kendra, I regret having not made the most out of my time. I wanted to be close to certain people like Rowena, or Cami, but I know that I can only be grateful for how far I actually got in spite of the limited time I had. People like them remind me that the quantity of time can and will be surpassed by the quality of time when it comes to nurturing friendship. I felt joy, all the same. All of us there have come a long way. And for once in my academic life, I actually felt… appreciated. Soon enough, when all the graduates were announced, the Alma Mater song was played, and people were already fighting back the tears. I would’ve wanted to just go and be teary-eyed as well (How often can I do that in public and get away with it, neh?), but I guess it just wasn’t the case. The closest I got to it was when Abby and I ended up hugging one another. I’ve said everything that I can say to her already. No words were needed.

Amid all the hugging, all the picture-taking, all the merry-making, I have to admit that I feel I have been working towards justifying my existence. And I know that more or less 800 other people have done the same that night.

.:And Then:.

We slowly filed out of the place a while later, and I didn’t find Eden or Diane anymore. Still, it was okay. We soon left for home, to fetch my siblings, as we were going to have dinner at Yellow Cab. Had very nice exchanges on SMS with the likes of Maia, Sam, and Abby, who borrowed her mom’s phone for the moment. Would’ve transcribed Abby’s message, but she may not agree to it… Here’s a funny exchange between, me and Sach…

Since I won’t be there tomorrow, I just thought I’d thank you for being the teacher I never had. :) Kahit konti, natuto ako ng Java. :) (Even by just a bit, I learned Java.)

Aww, congrats!

Special mention has to go to Rowena, though. I really would’ve given her a Blue Rose had I known her a bit longer (I mean, if Dione seemed a bit awkward with it, I had to assume the same with Rowena…). Turns out she’s also a really good sport (And to reiterate, she looks like Ma’am Sining, which I mean as a huge compliment to both people concerned.), after all… she walked into my “trap”, after all…

I didn’t win in the Blue Roast nominations I got, but I swear, your dedication kept me from feeling bad. Would’ve given you a blue rose, but thought against it.

That would’ve been really sweet :)! It’s enough for me to know that you would’ve given me one :). Am glad you appreciated my dedication.

Rowena… you wouldn’t happen to be… Chinese… would you? :)

.:Finally:.

So it’s over. Finally. I’m now a graduate, and destiny awaits. I can only hope that all the people who graduated with me who also touched my life in different ways would all be able to embark on their respective journeys towards their ultimacy. Sans one axe to grind (Have someone owe you lots of money and you’d know why.), I leave the Ateneo college life with no regrets save being unable to have been closer to people who mattered, being unable to get to know other people enough to matter, and being unable to touch their lives and allow them to touch my life. Beyond those that I did not do, no regrets can come with those that I have. As Abby put it, maybe someone can steal her Cum Laude medal, but they really can’t take that away from her, truth be told. Maybe I’d never see some of my friends again or at least in a long time, but this weblog is a living testimony to the significance these people have had in my life, and I hope to keep this memory alive.

Here.