November 27, 1997

This is what I wrote to the kci-list about our recollection day.

Hey!!

Guess what? My friend from the other section was right. I wish I listened to her. She said that the recollection day can make you cry. She told me to bring two tissue boxes. Too bad I didn't listen.

A sort of priest named Father Dennis (Bro Dennis, as he wants us to call him) was the kind of person I expected to be old, standoffish, and boring, no offense. But he was totally the opposite. He's 25, he's funny and he tells the greatest stories. Six years ago, he said, the generation of 6-Lila (my section) was the first kids he gave a recollection day to. His aunt was the supervisor of the school and she told him to give 6-Lila girls a recollection. Bro was like, "What?! I can't give a recollection to little girls!" And she laughed and said, "Why, those aren't little girls anymore!! Some of them are even bigger than me! And I heard that some of them had boyfriends already." And he was shocked. So he agreed to do the recollection.

So the day came and he introduced himself to the class. The biggest mistake he ever did was to say, "Call me anything you want." A really big mistake. Some girls called him "Mister". "Sir". "Father". "Tatang", was the one everyone called. And the weirdest thing was, we didn't have male teachers at that time so when a lot of gals knew the answer to a question, they were like, "Miss!!! Miiiiisss!! Ohh, I mean Tatang!!!" It made us laugh. He's a great story-teller, that guy. Maybe too great.

There was an activity called Heart To Heart Talk where we had to choose a partner and share our deepest, darkest secrets. And whether we liked it or not, we had to change our partners, whether it's our enemies or not. There is this one girl who is Faye who is angry at me. And she told me her problem. I won't write it here, since it's supposed to be a secret. But at the end of the day, she actually asked for forgiveness.

The Heart To Heart Talk made us cry because we had to relate to our sad experiences. The saddest thing was to think of the people who really loved us. People who really cared. People who would give up their lives for you. That really made us cry nonstop. You know why? Because it seemed like we were alone in this world, and we didn't know, that someone, somewhere, cares about us. And the saddest part about it was, is that the person who really, really loves us, is the person whom we always tend to hurt. It made me so guilty. You know who that person is? It's my mum. Because she gives me everything and it's like I don't know what to do to return it. Sometimes, I get angry at her for being strict in some ways. But thanks to Bro, he made me realize why she was doing those things, because she cares for me.

He shared with us some two, true stories that made us cry harder. One is about a father and a son who were poor but loved each other very much. The father's job was to open the drawbridge whenever a ship passed. When the father was about to open the drawbridge, the son would sit on his lap and watch his dad push the button. The bridge would split and the son would happily hug his father. "Oh, daddy, daddy, daddy!" he would cry. But one day, as a ship was about to pass, the father was looking for his son. He looked everywhere but couldn't find him. He had to go to the controls or the ship would hit the bridge. Then suddenly, he saw his son on the bridge! He had two choices. One was not to push the button and save his son but kill everyone on the ship. Number two was to push the button and risk his son's life but save the lives of many. The ship was coming closer and he had no choice this time. He closed his eyes and with tears streaming down his cheeks, he pressed the button. His son died and the saddest thing was, that the people in the ship didn't know that a father was crying, that he risked his life because of them.

The second was about two beggar boys, one 7 and one 10. They were brothers and they loved each other very much. One day as they were crossing the street, the 7 year old brother got hit by a bus. Anyway, as the driver backed up, the 10 year old brother tried to pull his brother so he wouldn't be ran over again. But it was too late. The bus was charging. What the 10 yr old did was to embrace his brother as the bus went over them. They both died, hugging each other.

Sad isn't it? We couldn't stop crying. Well, most of us couldn't stop crying. I'll tell you why later.

Then towards the end of the session, we read our palancas (it's a letter that tells about your good and bad side). My mum's palanca made me cry. And so did the one not from my classmates but from my close 'Net friends. I know they may be invisible but they are very real to me. And I'd like to personally thank Casey Hicks, Martin Ford , Derek Houck, Jeff Velasco and Steph Co for being totally honest with me and telling me what you think of me. I guess you're right, I'm a little too sensitive. But the person who I really have to thank is my mum, because it was her idea. I guess I owe her alot.

Now what really teed me off this day is because that tomboy classmate, Corrine didn't shed a tear. And while the rest of us were sobbing like babies, she was actually laughing at us.

I hope that this day will help me become a better person. And in a way, I'm sort of reborn this day, the day of a new beginning.

Lauren