We have different kinds of friends in our lifetime. We have childhood
friends who know every nasty and humiliating thing we did when we were just
dumb and innocent kids. We have high school friends who still remember our stupid crushes at school and how many times we ditched classes 'para
maglamaw or maligo'g dagat'. We have college friends who let us copy during
major exams and who wrote our names on the attendance sheets once or even all
the time. We have work friends, online friends, and the list GOZON (goes on)
and on. Thanks to the One above, I have all those kinds of friends, but I have
this one weird special-case friend that I can't put into the category. This is
so rare that it took me even 8 years to put a name on it. Let's just say this
friendship of ours deviates from the norm, so as special as it sounds, it also
needs an extra special name, so I call her 'Once in a Blue Moon Friend'.
I personally met this friend for the first time 11 years ago, in 6th grade. I was competing in Pagbigkas ng Tula contest which was part of the Girl and Boy Scouts of the Philippines activities in our town. There were almost 30 contestants from different schools. The weather was hot, and the students and teachers were nervous but I was only worried about two things; my 'luag' na underwear and my 'kagubaon' na black shoes. I sat there on stage with 30 other students thinking about the best plan not to get myself humiliated. While waiting for my turn, I don't know 'who did what' but the two girls sitting next to me and I exchanged names. The first girl has a unique name, that sounds so nice from my lips, and the other one is named after a fruit. For some reason, the fruit name stuck in me because she shares the same name with my cousin, and most of all she lives in Baranggay Magkaya (t), who forgets that kind of place? Hahaha.
Months passed and I never saw that girl again, not until the
interschool Math(?) quiz happened. (Side note: I was not, I am not, and I will
never be good at Math but my teacher had no choice because there were only two
Math wizards in our class and they needed three representatives) We were in the
same room but I knew she didn't remember me so I initiated the conversation
''C.A. imong pangalan sa? Tapad man ta atong tula pag girl scout''. ''Kahinumdom
lagi ka nako?", she asked. "Parehas man gud mog ngalan sa akong ig
agaw", I answered. And that's the end of our short and boring 2nd
encounter.
Years passed. I was in my third year of high school studying in a public
school in my neighboring town. Her name or face didn't even cross my mind
again. But one day, one of my cousins who was studying in another school said
''Naa bayay nang regards nimo, kontra daw mo sa tula sauna, bright siya, C.A.S. iyang ngan" and she showed me a picture of a gorgeous girl with perfect white teeth. After a minute of staring at the picture, it suddenly
clicked in my mind, she was the girl I met years ago. My teenage heart was overwhelmed at that moment by two things; first, she remembered me when I
thought she didn't and second, she looked so beautiful in the picture while I
looked like a potato in the mirror. Hahhaha.
Another set of years passed. I enrolled in a famous English-only college but for some weird reason I only lasted there for three days and little did I
know in another part of the world my once-in-a-blue-moon friend also enrolled in
a famous University but only for three days. Tadhana nga naman! After our 3-day
encounter in our respective institutions, without knowing we had the same fate,
we went back to our hometown and studied in the same community college. That
was when we officially saw each other again after meeting in 6th grade. The
first time I saw her, I was really enthralled by her beauty while maybe she was
really embarrassed by my very short and frizzy hair. (Side note: And because
this essay or whatever you call this is getting longer, let me just put our
four years of weird college friendship in a nutshell) We talked. We laughed. We
became good friends. I wrote a corny 'bisayang balak' for her. She appreciated
it. I told her about my silly crushes. She told me about her flings. I told her
about my other set of unrequited crushes. She told me about her boyfriend. I
told her about 'The Man in the Library'. She told me about her boyfriend. I
told her about nonsense things in my life. She told me about random things of
hers. And though we were studying in the same college, just like a blue moon,
we just sometimes saw each other. We had different majors. We didn't have many
classes together. And most of all we belonged to different circles of friends.
Perhaps we talked just once or twice a year, sometimes for hours (if no one or
nothing would stop us) and oftentimes for just a minute (because someone or
something stopped us).
Finally, after four years of blurry schoolwork and vivid 'tindahan sa Hunan' works for me, graduation came. We climbed onto the stage and got our not-diploma. And for whatever this connection that we have, with all the hundreds of graduates, parents, and relatives walking around who were crying, saying goodbyes, and taking pictures, we eventually found each other under the mango tree and exchanged 'Congratulations'. We took a picture or two together and promised that we would take another picture together during the oath-taking. Though everything happened so quickly, what I just remembered was as we were saying our final goodbyes and congratulations and as she was walking away or maybe it was me walking away, an idea came to my mind. Take note, at this time I was starting to write stories and essays for fun, so I said to myself if ever I would write something about this girl-lady-woman in the future I would entitle it 'Once in a Blue Moon Friend', because I might not see, talk, and catch up with her in years or even a decade, I don't know how and why but we still cross paths and we still treat each other as friends. Perhaps just like a blue moon, our friendship is rare but it doesn't mean it is not real.
To C.A.S.:
Thank you for letting me post this story.
Your Once-in-a-Blue Moon Friend,
(Life) Gozon
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