who you gonna be in mine...?

rummaging through boxes this weekend, i chanced upon old photo albums. there i was as a child... pics with my grandparents, with my mom, with uncles and aunts, with cousins. there were also several photos of me with our great dane, Bessie. photos of my confirmation with godparents... wait just one min, little Ayel looks like me when i was her age!

in sepia or brown (i wonder why they weren't in color?) were my class pictures from grade one to high school. staring at them, i successfully named my former classmates one by one.

santacruzan pictures -- i was reyna elena twice with the same consorte who now has 8 kids with four different mothers. more photos of me as a teen-ager -- celebrating birthdays with friends, swimming at the beach, JS prom photos, senior prom... i saw my senior prom date six years ago while hearing mass and he was going bald.

pictures with best friends Em and Li. Em, whom i haven't seen in more than twenty years stood as godmother to my son. same with Li who went to work in italy. last we spoke she said she married an italian.

high school graduation pictures -- we all wore a see-through-blue-pleated dress for that occasion. and "remembrance" shots with closest friends.

now look what we have here -- my old wedding pictures! no wonder the priest didn't even shook our hands after the ceremony. we really were much too young to be getting married! why haven't i thought of that before?

that's me when i was heavy with my son R... what's the matter with my nose? seemed swollen.

pics of my son a few days after he was born, his baptism (hey, there's Em), his birthdays, his first christmas and new year... the first time i gave him a bath, with his dad, with his uncles, aunt and grandparents... several family reunion photos (from his dad's side).

more photos of R -- class pictures, school activities, pics at the zoo, in tagaytay, in baguio, in batangas, at the beach, in Luneta...

my college pictures with friends and classmates -- i was married before i graduated. golly, i looked awful in my graduation picture! i never framed them.

more pics of R growing up...

two whole albums of me with my officemates... another filled with pictures with my mba classmates. there were even several shots taken at the ferry we rode on the way to Bataan.

pictures of former suitors with funny dedications. well thought of, but funny anyway.

i got to thinking -- i have met thousands of people in my lifetime, my own family included. could've been hundreds of thousands, but then i haven't kept count.

just how do we know who's going to stay and be part of our lives the same way we are going to be in theirs? is it fate that decides that, or do we? quite remarkable how a simple acquaintance could lead to an enduring friendship... or an unusual circumstance leading to a lifetime partnership. i guess one will never really know. the most important thing is, there was always something learned from the impressions they've left behind.

i have new albums with new pictures -- new albums for a new life. the stack of photos grow thicker everyday... R with his little Ayel... me and Ayel with our faces pressed together... mom with little Ayel...

and what's this? a girl in a green gown wearing a tiara. it's my tita, (Rosanna) who being only 3 or 4 years older than i am became more of a barkada. turning her picture over was this dedication which goes "in case your memory bits to remembrance..." married to an arab, she has since made her home in the middle east.

girl, wherever you are... what exactly did you mean by that?!?