Disclaimer (in case I embarrass myself in posting this): I so have no idea why I’m doing this. Oh wait. I do. It all started with a photo I randomly found in my stash and a blog entry that prompted me to start writing this.
“Fate” is a funny concept. The phenomenon that puts us on the right spot and on the right day to meet someone who will change a lot of things in our lives is astounding. But this very same phenomenon that plucks this very same person out of our sight, just when things are looking good, beats the crap out of me. I have nothing against it. In fact, knowing how my brain works, I’d rather have met the person over anything else. Forget the flight out, forget the miles. What matters is what people do with the time given them when given them, right? Anyway, the idea is, I met someone over five months ago. I call him Jude.
He was an exchange student at my university last semester. Why he chose the wild east, I have no idea. Lol. But he did and took up a couple of subjects under my college. His program in the university lasted for six months and he had an additional month of internship in a far off island in the country — 7 months, if I got it right. But! We only met each other on his fifth month in campus. Timing seems ridiculous right?
It was an event pulled by my organization around late September and for some reason, he and his fellow exchange students found themselves seated nearest to the stage. I was the host that night. Go figure. Lol. I was introduced to them by a common friend and my first conversation with Jude went something like this:
J: What course are you taking up?
A: Uhh, Development Communication.
J: I have subjects there!
A: Oh really?? Like what?
J: DEVC180? Communication campaign?
A: Ah! Took that already. That’s a lot of work! (Looks at the stage) Ok, gotta go. Nice to meet you!
2 weeks later, late night drinks with the exchange students was arranged and I couldn’t say no to my friend who promised me I would enjoy it. So there we all were on the apartment floor of another friend, drinking and playing card games. But I ended up ignoring (in every sense of the word) Jude. I talked to everyone else except him. Ha ha later on, he described it as “You didn’t even look at me. It stuck with me. You hurt me, cut me deep” (a blatant exaggeration might I add lol).
FRIENDSHIP FOUND ON VOMIT
My threshold for alcohol tolerance is so low it’s ridiculous. We were playing “I never have ever” (typical drinking game no?) and I lost in one round. Jose the ever so game Mexican made me take a shot. THE worst shot ever in my whole life (did I mention in my whole life?), I can’t even remember what was in it. I spat it out, and made a run for the sink where I vomited my dinner. Disgusting!!
The vomiting took forever, I thought it wasn’t gonna stop. While I was spewing all that icky-ness, I felt a hand pat my upper back and heard a voice saying “It’s okay, it’s okay.” I assumed it was Marty, the friendliest among them, but as I got a clearer view, I saw Jude instead. I thought I was gonna vomit more. Not because of the alcohol but because of pure shame. Ha ha. He handed me his bottle of Gatorade and insisted that I drink it. After I got myself cleaned up, he offered to buy me water from outside. I decided to accompany him and during our walk to the convenient store and back, conversations I thought would never exist between us gave way to actually getting to know each other.
We spent a lot of time together after that. He never ran out of humor and his HIGHLY positive outlook on everything kept surprising me every single time we were together. You guys should hear him sing his sentences just as how Marshall from How I Met Your Mother does it, not to mention his random Yorkshire accent. Ha ha! I was a Grinch when we met. Not kidding. I was so disillusioned by relationships in general that I might have come off as a hopeless nutcase. But it didn’t matter to him. “Chin up,” he’d always say before doing something really awfully hilarious that always cracked me up. Ha!
FAREWELLS
We were never good with good byes. Although we did it so many times before already that by the time he actually left the country, we tried our best to skip the generic tearful farewell. Our first attempt to a good bye was his flight out to China for a week-long break before his internship. Then from China, he flew back in on the day of my 22nd birthday — just in time to celebrate it with the rest of the exchange students and my college friends. The next day however was his flight out of Manila for his one month internship. During his stay there, he flew back in Manila to visit the university, and that was another set of farewells especially when he had to fly back into the island he was having his internship in.
One time, we were walking out of campus, I had all my bags with me ‘cos I was going home for the weekend. He on the other hand was going back to the airport later in the afternoon. He was looking at me and I shot him a glance back. We REFUSED to drop ‘Good bye’ so this was what happened:
A: What!
J: Ano?*
A: What!!
J: Ano!! (laughing by then)
*’Ano’ is Filipino of ‘What’
The last time I was with him was November 20, 2011 (Related post here). And I’m telling you, IT IS DIFFICULT to cry when you’re around Jude. Lol. It is simply IMPOSSIBLE. The funny thing was, he met my older brother and we all had dinner together. I didn’t know how he’d react considering he was meeting someone from my family. But it went fine, they talked as if it wasn’t a first encounter. Ha ha. When it was time to say the last good bye, he embraced me, said “see ya Aix,” and walked me to my brother’s car.
LET THIS BE OUR PROOF
This is our proof that at one point in time, fate and all its phenomena pulled gravity in one spot of the world just for us. I am writing this because my memory of Jude turned out to be a very important memory for me. That even after months since he left, I consider it to be the encounter that really taught me what it is to be happy. One day, some day, both of us will have found different ideas on happiness and the memory that is “Jude & Aix” will have faded from our minds a little bit. But it will always be there, lying somewhere in the year 2011, The Beatles’ Hey Jude oversung and overplayed by these two crazy people.
DOWN MEMORY LANE
Afternoon before Jude’s flight to China. Aix and Jude were seated on the steps of the mini amphitheater of the Student Union Bldg (refer to polaroid number 3 of this post). Aix looked up and pointed to Jude a flock of birds flying in V-form.
A: Oh look at THAT!
J: D’y'know what that’s called?
A: No. What’s it called?
J: I don’t know either (laughs).
On the morning of their flight back to the States, their cab ripped them off by taking them to the wrong terminal. Jude texted me about it and said they decided to get off the cab and transfer to another.
A: OMG. Please don’t tell me you paid the cab driver!!
J: K, I won’t tell you.
Dear Jude, maybe our situation will get less difficult as months go by. Don’t worry, I’ve made our story embarrassingly immortal through this entry. Maybe God gets so hell-bent on making us meet again one day, who knows. Maybe a hurricane will take me 12,000 miles away from home someday. Who knows? Nobody, really. But right now is what matters — just as how “right now” was what mattered when we were in close proximity to each other. Why does this feel like a piece of the Before Sunrise/Before Sunset sequels? Whatever. Deal with it. We’re still both awesome in any time, in any space, in any reality. ;)
