Sunday, January 21, 2007 The Blue Knights convene By Jingoy Salvador
THE dreaded day has come! Dreaded? Or maybe I watched too many TV shows about how difficult it is to face former classmates. Take for example Romi and Michelle's High School reunion. Once unpopular girls they had to pretend to be successful businesswomen so as not to be humiliated by the "chic clique" again.
One said to have "invented the post-it" when both actually have blue collar jobs. Or those reality TV shows where the geeks and nerds turned into hunks and bombshells ready to take revenge! Ho-hum, I think it is only in America where they capitalize in making money out of insecure people. I guess there is a market for these shows.
But the fiesta loving and warm-hearted Pinoys are different. It is always a thrilling time for us to meet and chat about the good old days with long time friends, especially the high school pals. I think this is the time when our bonds with friends are sealed the strongest. As Sharon would ding, "High school life is masaya at kay ganda."
In Ateneo, it has been the custom that the high school silver jubilarians host the alumni homecoming. It is the event each and every Atenean look forward to attending every end of the year. And since batch 1977 moved the gathering from the Ateneo school grounds to the Venue, it has since then become another custom for all the hosts. After all, what venue can accommodate the growing number of Blue Knights? On this event, all Ateneans are welcome to join from the first to the recent graduates of the school.
This year, it was the turn of batch '81 to host the much-awaited event. Ok, I have to confess I belong to this batch but due to my frequent absence, I was not able to be part of the organizing committee (there, I just divulged my age!).
The year 1981 was a memorable time for Ateneo de Davao's history. This was the year when the secondary level gave up the exclusivity of being an all boys level. And so, the fist batch of girls was able to enroll. It was memorable indeed and accepted with much anticipation. Or so I believe.
These girls proved to be a worthy opponent of the men in terms of scholastic excellence. And when the first batch of girls was finally knighted as alumni of ADDU high school on March 1981, it was a girl, Teresa Baarde who lead the class and earned the Valedictorian.
On the homecoming knight, it was quite evident in the presentation that women were now part of the whole preparation. There was a feminine touch to what used to be a very masculine program. It was a great program and party. But like any other occasion, there will always be comments, good and bad. But our aim was to make everyone enjoy and we hope that you did.
Let's just say, it was great to see friends get together. We have passed the sword and shield to next batch and we look forward to another grand time of catching up with comrades. See you all next year!
