love letters to a school

Before Justin and Alexa returned to the US, I showed them this box of letters their mom and I wrote to each other from 7th to 12th grade. I told them that they could choose one letter to bring with them back to California: the rest I would keep and someday destroy. I blanched when the two chose a "Mission S.F." letter, the second letter ever sent to me by Trish and probably the most valuable missive in the box.

Even before there was Second Life, Trish and I had an alternative universe that allowed us to comfortably navigate the treacherous social waters of middle school. I was the new kid on the block and Trish initially didn't want her barkada to know that we were friends: "Mission S.F." ostensibly meant "Mission San Francisco," but it really was a code for "Mission Secret Friends."

We even had secret identities: Trish was "Grant Mitchell," I was "Renée Beauchamp," and my mission was to capture for her the heart of "Elaine Brooks," who some of Trish's friends derisively called "the Farmhand."

Also in the box were notes from our friends from Pisay (or PSci). In 9th grade, Trish and I were part of the high school choir that performed in Philippine Science High School.

While we were singing a dreamy rendition of "I'll Take Manhattan," our demure girl found herself looking into the eyes of a mestizo boy from Pisay. After the concert, he must have observed my closeness to Trish, since he handed me a business card with his phone number: his name was Peter. When I was still studying in UPIS, I had wanted to go to Pisay myself- in fact, I had taken the ISM exams in order to practice for the Philippine Science exams, not knowing that I would become an IS Filipino Scholar. I encouraged the relationship until young love bloomed and Trish and Peter- officially, if not truthfully- became each other's first girlfriend/ boyfriend.

I reminisced about those days of mini-golf and three to four hour long telephone conversations some more when I read a post in Howie's blog on Pisay, Auraeus Solito's new movie. I missed it when it was shown in UP and I plan to go on a date with myself and catch it in Glorietta this week.