#MayForever
I wa s 16 when I fell in love with a 12- year- old. Twentyseven years after, I am still in love, now to a 39-year- old. This kind of love is forever; even if many are skeptical about forever.
I was 16 when I fell in love with the UPLB Com Arts Soc, the official academic organization of the BA Communication Arts students at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños. The Soc, founded in 1976, was barely 12 then. Last Wednesday, the Soc celebrated its 39th birthday and I know I am still in love with the organization that saw me through when I was in college.
UPLB, an autonomous university of the UP system, is a microcosm of the country. In it live students from all parts of the Philippines, even foreigners. There are Catholics, Christians, Muslims and lumads. There are rich and poor students who belong to different organizations — fraternities, sororities, varsitarian organizations, academic organizations. Students who do not belong to any organization are called “barbarians” and they are just as happy as the ones with “orgs.”
The university is so big that, apart from classrooms and offices, it has its own churches, grade schools, high schools, soccer fields, stores, eateries, dormitories, boarding houses, private houses. Because it is located at the foot of Mount Makiling, the university has its own forest and wildlife, and, if you consider the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) as part of UPLB, it has its own vast rice field. A climb up the mountain will reveal the Jamboree site of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, Pook ni Maria Makiling, the National Arts Center and the Philippine High School for the Arts.
The university has its own culture. One of the “subcultures” is the UPLB Com Arts Soc whose “tambayan” is at the Humanities building, the melting pot of all the university students. The members of the Soc — both alumni and residents (residents are students who are still enrolled in the university) — always know how to love the organization they belong to, whether or not they express this kind of love.
Why am I still in love with the Soc? Because in it I found the many dear friends I treasure to this day. The best part of my school life is my entry to UPLB. At the Com Arts Soc, my “brods” and “sisses” are conscious how to half the sorrows brought by juvenile angst and double the joy of our mini-triumphs. We constantly grow up in this culture — that a helping hand is just on the table of our
tambayan; an ear ready to listen is just in a corner; a heart ready to cushion one’s fall is just a heartbeat away.
We were far away from our parents but the members of the Soc became our family. We crossed the streets together, holding hands many times. We sang our blues away, even our hunger, on the steps of Humanities. We dreamed together — and we found out that dreaming was done better with love and laughter.
The alumni of the Soc live from all parts of the world yet, even before the advent of Facebook, we remain connected. True love takes effort to bridge the distance. There is no distance too far between the members of the Soc. For example, when Therry Reyes, the jolly Mamu of the Soc, became ill with the Big C, many members made sure to comfort her even if she was in Canada. When she came home, we dropped our schedules to pamper her with loving kindness. At her wake very recently, we celebrated her life and remembered how she affected ours.
Even in our busy world, a Com Arts Soc will always rush to a brod’s or sis’ side. As members of the Soc, it is injected in our veins that we should be there for each other. We make sure to visit the university from time to time and have a glimpse of our tambayan. For the alumni who have not been back to the university for a long time, a five-minute lounge at the UPLB Com Arts Soc tambayan is like a lifetime of happiness. At our humble tambayan, we harness lofty memories. We savor the moment, ruminate on the past. There we become Peter Pan again.
Many of us even take time to visit our former professors. It is always a nostalgic experience every time we visit them as we profuse them with gratitude for preparing us to the real world. It is in the system of the members of the Soc to love and care and we take that DNA to heart — even if we don’t see each other for a long time. Remember, time and distance do not matter to the Com Arts Soc.
So, when people say there is #NoForever, I look to the Com Arts Soc. I have been in love with it for the last 27 years. Next year, it will be 40. I will love the Soc beyond that.
For the UPLB Com Arts Soc, #MayForever. (For your new beginnings, e-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.com. I’m also on Instagram @bumtenorio. Have a blessed Sunday!)