SERENDIPITY IS AMONG MY FAVORITE WORDS! They’re high sounding and pleasing to the ear. I like how your lips touch when you say seren-DIP-ity and put a stress on the -ity. The very word sounds active, alive and expressive! It’s meaning is even better. Dictionary says, it is the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident; an instance of making such a discovery; good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries.
I feel blessed for all my serependity. My chanced unexpected meetings and discoveries of people and places in my life.
In the internet alone, I’ve met some interesting, real nice people. I’ve gained new friends through this blog. Without it (the blog) I wouldn’t have known them! You get a letter, a note, a comment every so often and it just makes your day! Finding yourself in a crowded place and seeing a warm smile across the room then that’s enough to start a conversation. Being in a place totally new to you and discovering how it would turn out to be one of the best places you’ve ever been. Serendipity!
But one of my greatest discoveries is rediscovering my friend from way back–in grade school! She was my classmate from kindergarten up til sixth grade. We were close on those amazon years- a time when you didn’t need expensive toys to play. Simple thrills was enough to make your adrenalines pumping. No computer games, no gadgets, no funky gameboards. She was my playmate in ‘tumba-lata, piko, shatong, bagoong-ngay, bulan-bulan, step-no, chinese garter and whatever other silly names we call our games then. (I wonder if kids today still play and call it that! hehe). We played at the end of each school day. We were part of the dance troop. We were girlscouts together. Our last names being close to each other, we always sat in proximity in class. We shared assignments and perhaps at some points, shared answers in quizzes! We were on the same group in ‘cleaner’s day’. She went to my birthday parties, I went in hers.
Despite the closeness, we just lost contact after graduation. She remained in our alma mater to finish high school and college while I went to Manila and Davao for my schooling. So our lives went on. All those years counting ‘86, we never saw each other. Our grade school friendship buried deep in our memories.
As fate would have it, our paths crossed again in 1999. I met her for the first time in Gensan after 13 years. The meeting was casual, very odd for two people who considered themselves great buddies in elementary school. After my stint working for a Japanese publication in Tokyo and Manila, I was back in my hometown on a respite. Of all places to meet, I met her at an internet shop I frequent. As it turned out, she was friends with the owner. AND she lived literally 3 houses away from where the shop was! I was totally clueless! How could have I forgotten the street I used to go to a lot in grade school?!
The time she walked in the shop, I was so wrapped up in front of the computer that I was just oblivious of my surrounding. She saw me first. She could have tapped my shoulder or called my name- my full name at that or both! Goodness, gracious! That made me jump off my seat, nobody calls me by my full name on a public area! It has to be someone from my past calling me! And there she stood, eagerly excited and obviously happy to ran into me. And there I was, mumbling some impersonal hi’s and hello’s. Going from glancing to her and glued back in front of the monitor (hey, I was minding my Php75.00/hour internet rate!) She was doing all the talking in her all too perfect tagalog which struck me because everyone else speaks visayan there or tagalog- the visayan way. It’s a tagalog spoken dialect with a lot of visayan interjections or vice versa. Gets? She candidly gave me her contact info and I said thanks. Then she asks for my number and I quipped in the vernacular- "oh, it’s listed in the directory- go find it yourself." That changed her facial expression from happy to somewhat disgusted! Hey! I told you I was focused on the computer! So she left. I continued on with my surfing like nothing happened.
A week later, my computer broke down and I figured it’s time to upgrade it so I can have my own internet connections at home as well. I was going over the directory on where to bring my CPU. Aha! I remembered. She manages a computer shop! Perfect! Of course, it was payback time for her as she was almost giving me a hard time, meeting terms with my unit and all. Which serves me right anyway, after how I treated her at the internet shop. If I was her, I wouldn’t be entertaining me at all as a customer. Nonetheless, she was gonna make a sale on me so we met half way. That was the start of a renewed friendship.
The continuous security threats in the city at that time forced a lot of establishments to close down. Her shop included. I invited her to work with me on my family’s food business. She joined the team! We moved on to open our very own business project in 2001. A restobar at the heart of Gensan. The business is flourishing and so is our friendship. We were inseperable since. Even at 13,000 miles away- we text message, chat, talk over the phone and write emails. Stronger than ever. Our business, with God’s blessings, is as solid as our friendship.
She’s my alter ego, my partner in crime, sometimes playing ‘devil’s advocate’ but most times my angel in disguise. She taught me a lot in life. I have only theories, she teaches me life. She’s my sparring partner, my shock absorber, my psychotherapist, my business partner, my "twin" sister, my adviser, my alarm clock, my handkerchief when I cry, my ‘resting place’, one of my sinigangs!, my stress-reliever, my stress-inducer, my textmate, my IM buddy, my comfort shoes… the list goes on. Bottomline is, she epitomizes all my favorites in life. It sounds cliche but it’s hard to imagine my life withour her in it.
This is a tribute to jaz, a friend whom I love so very dearly. Happy birthday old friend. From little ol’ me…
note: photos lifted from notre dame of dadiangas for girls yearbook, class of ‘80.
