One day last September 2017, a good friend and college mate informed me that there will be a group gathering among my peer mates in college. He asked me to check my schedule and if possible join in the preparation meeting in Pangasinan. I was not able to attend on that day and casually I just informed the guys of my tight schedule. After a few days, the same good friend told me that some of the other friends will be reaching us to prepare for a batch reunion instead. It was surprising as the simple get together had boiled down to a batch event. This time the meeting will be in Baguio City. There wouldn't be any excuse for me not to attend.
The coordinators were delegated on our first meeting. Invite committee, fund raising committee, venue scouting committee and others were formed. Group page and chat were also prepared so those batchmates who are already out of the country will be notified just the same. The group chat is bombarded by so many Hi's and hello's and how are youuuuuus! Everyone got alive and happy. The two months chatting made all the catching up possible for all of us.
December 2018, only a few days before the main event, everyone is prepared, pledges earned and acknowledged, registration and program finalized. The expected 20 participants boomed to 40. The batch president was all smiles knowing that a lot of us are happy to attend.
The 28th at Baguio Palace Hotel, the event is here, SLU CE '97 reunion will take place. A few early birds arrived and the place stayed quiet as if each is still shy. Teh group reached 25 but we kept on waiting for the others to arrive.
Noontime, we decided to have our lunch before proceeding to our program, hoping that the others will arrive soon. So an hour after lunch, the program was pushed. I led the invocation, George P. Vinoya gave a wacky Opening Remarks followed by Cahrlie Maximo's inspiring Welcome Message. Inspirational Messages were also given by Eduardo Crisostomo Jr, and Antonio Abad, the vice president and the president of the executive body. Speeches were full of meaning, enthusiastically driving us to reminisce what we were 20 years ago. As Antonio Abad said, "The reunion is to unite us, the wacky group 20 years ago, and not who are us now." The program continued with the election of the new body of officers where Samuel Ganancial gave his speech as the new batch president. Rommel Joseph Liclican also encouraged everyone as he addressed the solidarity plan.
The program continued with the drawing of raffle winners and distribution of tokens, then the games...
Nino Martinez had the spirit of the group ecstatic as we played butt it pop! Laughter never ceased among the players and the audience as everyone witness how each member of the teams pop the balloons by sitting on those.
The other game was jut thought of by George out of the plan as he asked three men to be blindfolded and do the limbo dance. And as what was expected of him, these guys never crossed the string at all as he gave them a different set of instruction.
With all spirits high, the program concluded and we had freestyle partying. Some sang songs with the band, and other danced all the way.
Most of the songs we remember are from the 90's so I already gave a list of requested songs to the band as a heads up on what they are going to expect from us. "Salamat" was sung by the whole group as well as songs from E-heads. George again unexpectedly sang Abuchikek (even I don't know how to spell it). And amazingly he knew the lyrics as well the every single note of the tune.
Way to go Goryo!
The alloted time at Baguio Palace wasn't enough so we decided to move to another venue and that is for another blog!
nice post
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