Memory Lane

Last night, I took a walk down the proverbial memory lane with some of my closest friends from medical school. Since we were usually grouped together by our family names, I sort of gravitated towards the As and the Bs. They were not only my blockmates, my gripe buddies, my pig-out mates, they were also the my best friends then.

Last night, four of our friends came home from the US for a 2-week vacation. We took this chance to gather for a few hours and reminisce. Some things just don't change. Reggie is still our Baldy Daddy, almost forty with a mind of an 18 year old (hehe). Lims is still the butt of all jokes because of his Limwelisms. Meann has lost more than 50% of her original weight, but is still as tsismosa. Jen is still bading. And a lot more.

UPCM Class 2004. Block A. Circa 2008. Dinner at Robinson's Manila.

UPCM Class 2004. Block A. Circa 2003. Lounging at the Stone Tables.

Housemates. Cuevas Buena Familia sans Cinderella.

Cuevas Buena Familia. Circa 2004, at the apartment. With MeAnn.

I remember going all the way from Manila to UP Diliman just to have lunch at Mang Jimmy's then feast on dirty ice cream at the UP Sunken Garden even if our tummies were already sticking out a mile. Despite our toxic PGH duties, the 24-hour days were spent in laughter, gossip, cards, alcohol, whatever we could get our hands on. Oh, those were the days. Five years of great friendship in the most grueling of situations, where Charles Darwin's Survival of the Fittest is most manifest. We survived. And we made the most out of it.

Now, almost five years after we received our MD licenses, we are still very much the same. Same jokes, same stories, same people to talk about. Some of us gained weight, some lost weight, some already with receding hairlines, some still as curly as before (hehe, peace lims!). All of us still single. (ugh!)

I miss them.

But we have to fulfill our roles in the greater scheme of things. We still have a long way to go. There are so many things to change, so mo much good to do. Whether in the US or here in the country, we will make our alma mater proud. And we will remain Block 1 at heart.