“Just like fine wine, our friendship gets better as time goes by.”

            Eleven years and counting. That’s the longevity of my friendship with my decade-plus best friend and little sister, Vibon Jobelle Sorreda-Pascual. We first met in 1996, when we were in Preparatory level at the UST-Grade School. To make the long story short, we still had incomplete teeth when we met!

            Even though we grasped the concept of real friendship only last year, the decade-long journey to reach this pinnacle is something that the both of us treasure to this day. My memories of Vibon have got nothing to do with going to the mall or watching a movie; they are simplistic in nature!

            Perhaps my fondest recollection of our bond was in February 2006, P.E. time. We were at the UST Sports Complex field, and while the entire class was listening intently to the instructions of our teacher, we chose to go out of our way and sit down on the pavement and just talk calmly, with the silent afternoon breeze whipping at our bodies. She nudged me about ten times to tell a story, because she was the only one disclosing her sentiments about a certain fiasco that she was embroiled in at the time. At the end of our conversation, we both felt that something extraordinary happened in that ordinary get-together.

            But then our high-school graduation came. How ironic it is that only a month after we began grasping the true essence of our friendship, a knife wedged our chance to be together in one classroom still. I was headed to the College of Education; she was embarking on a sailing towards the Faculty of Engineering.

            I guess it’s true that when you no longer have something with you everyday, you treasure it more. And that works for me and my Li’l Sis. While differences in our schedules, priorities and buildings may separate us indefinitely, we see to it that time is well spent between us when the opportunity presents itself. I’m confident that wherever this life brings us, the friendship will remain.

            One last thing that I wish to share with you is this story that Tita Victoria, Vibon’s mother, told me on the phone: “Sabi niya [Vibon], ‘Gusto ko, Mommy, ‘pag nasa Canada na tayo at makapag-ipon ako, papupuntahin ko rito si Philippe tsaka yung pamilya niya para makilala ko.’” Well, Bon, for my part here’s your Kuya’s promise: “’Pag ako nakaipon din, huhugutin kita mula sa Canada, babalik ka rito sa Pilipinas!”

 

~-=PH: Kuya=-~