My highschool life in IJMCP

It was clear as if it was still yesterday when i asked a friend of my sister what highschool is like. I recently graduated from elementary, and i was a bit anxious about my upcoming first day in a new school and in a new chapter of my life. She told me that highschool was fun, full of lovelife and frogs to dissect. Based on my four years spent in IJMCP San Pablo, i wonder how will i describe "highschool" in my own little words...

When i was in first year, i found my new classmates GT, Julien, Dean, Gewy, Inah and Miggy really nice and fun to be with. In fact, they were the complete opposite of my mean, old classmates from Cahbriba. I was like Basilio when he moved from Letran to Ateneo, like Harry Potter when he first stepped into Hogwarts. In Cahbriba, my classmates just ignore and treat me like some loser while in Montessori, it's completely different. In Montessori, they dote and look at me like a very wonderful friend. Never before in my whole academic life i was treated as an equal by my own classmates. First year was my favorite year next to fourth year because it was studded with so much happy, innocent memories. It's unusual to hear about a highschool experience filled with memories like playing with Harry Potter and Naruto toys, ala Harry Potter dueling with pencils, Harry Potter roleplaying, Harry Potter discussions, Tarot card readings from Cardcaptor Sakura Cards, mad escapes from the wedding booth, first sweet moment ever happened(during my 13th bday, Keith spoonfed me with cake-lolz) and other kinds of wicked mischief one couldn't imagine.
But in 2nd year, things slightly changed.

When i was in 2nd year, two beloved classmates left us(Gewy and Miggy). But they were replaced by Alyssa Flores and Rafael Salazar. In my sophomore year, people in Montessori began to treat me like shit because some other new students are gracing and being doted on in the whole highschool department. My best friend Gt ditched me for Julien and new freshman girl KC Lacerna. Gt became a friend who is the best among my friends but he isn't considered a best friend to me anymore. My only best friend back then was the almost mute, new classmate Rafael Salazar(whom we affectionately call "Seksi Seksi"). Like what Ate Jel described me back then, i was really a low-profile student, just like Rafa. My sophomore year was definately the lowest ebb of my highschool life, not only i was depressed about my mom's condition but i am also sad about my life in school. My classmates doesn't talk that much to me anymore, i can't cope with that hag ma'am Flor's lessons, Keith hurts me day by day, people think im so epal, im often alone and no wonder i became the cynic everyone in school knew at present. Thank God i never lost my cool or else people in Montessori would have condemned me as crazy in a bad way. I would have transferred to Academia if it weren't for Dean, Julien and Rafa becoming Tokio Hotel fans like me. Ever since they saw and heard "Monsoon" on my ipod, they couldn't stop singing it everywhere even today. Like me, they like Bill back then better than the Bill today.
But my besmirched second year life is a bit good, i had fairly good grades, a really awesome ambition(to become a doctor/psychiatrist in Germany), people still give me some dignity and i have my own little world. I had some great memories in my second year such as the field trip in Star city(in which the bus ride home was kinda funny because KC, using her super primadonna powahs, had her horror/porn movie played until T.Mavic woke up and discovered it), the sports fest in Lipa, the Filipino quiz with questions about Harry Potter(in which the questions and answers are in ENGLISH and i scored the highest) and those moments when i find myself alone is more blissful than being with friends who turned jeje/BI.

By the time i hit third year, things began to bright up but still there are other bad things. In my third year, i enjoyed a slight improvent in my grades(since sir Ian stepped in as our new math teacher- whom im thankful to have since he teaches the subject much more clearly than t.Mavic) but i was unfortunate to have a sucky social life in school. In school, i was often alone. Rafa left me for Gt, Dean hangs around with Julien and Inah with a new girl called Rizelle. Then there was a new girl called Phoebe Ansama who often nags me to change my style into hers. Worse of all, there was a mad belief among the highschoolers that Harry Potter is satanic, thanks to the pompous, very influential, tubby man we call as "sir Jhoma" who suddenly went in our school to babble about nonsense. All these made me withdraw from the affairs of the school and into a world called Potterforums.com, where i enjoyed social acceptance, where i fought off sir Jhoma's powerful, hurtful words, stand by my own beliefs and had such wonderful friends like Keith Hutchins, Matt Scotton, GinnyX, Yasmine, Jayfer and last but not the least, Audrina Kaltiz whose claims are still doubtful up to this day. I never enjoyed my third year that much... I was in my own little world until my fourth(and last) year of highschool in Montessori came.

The summer before i started my fourth year, i promised myself not to withdraw from my classmates, spend as much time with them as i can and live my fourth year life to the fullest. On my fourth year, two dear classmates left(Inah and Rafa) Monte to spend their last year of highschool somewhere else. I also expected that i'll never had any close friends from the other levels, until Jonathan and Mark Malabanan came.
It was the year in which i faced academic successes as well as living my life as a teenager- having an awesome dad, surrounded with brilliant friends and having a love life at last on the last part.

When i first entered Montessori, i was a clumsier, liberal minded, UP dreaming 12 year old who yearned to change and live a new life. When i left Montessori, i got what i want and i left the school as a promising, loyal and faithful Montessorian who is ready to fulfill her dreams and face the real world no matter what.

Letting go of anger, grudges and lust....

I never expected anything great would happen in the retreat in Tagaytay. All i thought the retreat would consist of something like a horrible mix of the Believe Youth Congress of 2008 and some major WWE-esque catfights, dogfights, street fights and all kinds of fights between SPC+Lipa against Lucena. But i was wrong...

During my stay in Tagaytay, i took a chance to let go of hard feelings, make new (unlikely) friends and enjoy the cold but gentle breeze of Tagaytay. It was a break away from problems at school, at home, the autosupply, internet, Tokio Hotel and some other things. There i lived in peace and joy with my classmates, Lipa pals and our newly befriended Lucena friends ala Big Brother.

There i let go of my past sins by confessing them all to the very kind and understanding priest who heard all of our confessions and advised us things. It was also there when God finally told me that it's okay for me to be a Harry Potter fan through the priest's advice to me. Now im convinced enough that that ignorant oaf Joma Villahermosa got nothing better to do in life so he just tell malicious lies about things, convince kids into the kind of ignorance and backwardness that belongs to the middle age and form a confounded group called "Kilusang kabataan para kay Kristo".
First, it was my dad who told me that being a Potter fan is okay just as long as it never affects my love for God at all and then now i confessed this one to the priest, well he told me the same thing- it's not sinful just as long as you still believe God is still the loving Almighty One Who can do everything and you believe magic is just plain fiction. Now that it's really the representative of Christ who told me about it, now i should be relieved and thank Him for being loving and understanding. My anger on Brother Jhoma finally let go and i forgive him- but i still hate him anyway for humiliating me in front of my schoolmates twice last year and still going around and babbling about Disney, Sesame Street or Pokemon being evil(I highly doubt when he was talking these nonsense in Hong Kong or Singapore, no one ever threw rotten dimsum nor "Hell bank notes" at him when he was delivering his speech. that gallows bird, that filibuster, anthracite, Ostrogoth, vandal).
Also, after i confessed, i noticed that when i was listening to Tokio Hotel(later that evening when we're about to sleep), i don't feel uncomfortable listening to them anymore. I think the reason why i feel so uncomfortable when i listen to Tokio Hotel before was that i did a lot of grievous sins particularly to Bill. I thought a lot of impure thoughts on him so bad that it's enough for him to wish that i'd die in a plane crash in the Himalayas and my body get eaten by the yeti. -lol. Seriously.
Other than letting go of bad things, intentions and thoughts, i also let go of personal grudge against the Lucena people. Back then, i used to think (and notice last sports fest) that the Lucena people are a bunch of mean Mary Sues who wanted all the attention, enemies, terrorists, glory, greatness, fame, power, magic powers, kilikili power, planets in the solar system and all things in them. I used to loathe them out of jealousy for being always first in games and competitions as well as T.Myn's favor.
But all these changed and me, my classmates and our Lipa mates were not the only ones who were affected by this and changed but also these Lucena people who were soon to be our friends.
The moment we met our facilitator ate Karen, a 33 year old woman who looks like the Filipino version of Sek Mei of Virtues of Harmony II, we received our retreat bags and there we found a piece of puzzle in each bag. All the different puzzle pieces form four pictures and those whose pieces forms into a picture with some other classmates shall be groupmates with them for the rest of the retreat. That means, those groupmates will be the ones who will be your groupmates in games, be with you on the same table when you eat, share stories about yourself and family, pray with you, console with you and do things together as a team. Good thing enough, GT and Angelou became my groupmates and also these three Lucena mates- Clifford, Claudine and Ivan. We are the fourth group and we are called "Alpha, Delta, Theta- Math in short" Sure enough, they became the people whom im always with throughout the retreat but i never expected that i'll get more close with GT as a best friend and be best friends with Angelou and most especially with Clifford, Claudine and Ivan. During the retreat, we shared and talk about a lot of things like Montessori here and Montessori there, their family, their lives, T.Myn, sir Manto, Rizelle, school life and such.
We were so attached to each other to the point when our retreat ended, we almost burst into tears upon separating. We all asked ourselves all these times we were in Montessori, why it's only now we're about to leave that we just discovered that we could be friends together?
Well, im happy that at least i'm about to leave Montessori discovering that the people whom i thought to be infidels were just like us.