While I was in the middle of reading a looooong case, its digest due in a couple of hours, my phone rang.
It was R. Good friend, great hangout buddy, ultra reliable harbinger of fun and drinking mayhem, inventor of the glorious, infamous Tisay that had us crawling all over Rastro.
He then tells me that he’s leaving for the US next month. As in 5 weeks from now. And he may never come back. As in, I may never see him again. Ever.
And then it hit me, the last time I had gone out with him was more than a year ago.
So many things we never got around to doing together. He was supposed to teach me how to play tennis (he’s a TENNIS PLAYER, as opposed to being just a tennis player, haha), teach me how to drive (let’s face it, not knowing how to drive at 25 is pathetic), and introduce me to the wonderful world of Ultimate Frisbee. I’ve never even been to his new pad and it’s been more than a year since he moved.
Of course, if we’ve somehow drifted apart, it’s all entirely my fault. Unlike most of my other friends who’ve given up all hope of ever pulling me out of the bog that is law school life, R has persistently maintained the belief that one day I’ll wake up, decide that I’m still cool and I still want to have a life, and take him up on one of his offers to hang out. In my defense, I too faithfully believed that I WOULD one day make time for the man who helped me enroll in UP and somehow make my way through the intimidating maze that is the Diliman campus (hey, for someone who has absolutely no sense of direction, UP Diliman is positively scary!), who picked me up from my evening classes regularly during the first few weeks of my I’m-lost-and-utterly-clueless-somebody-help-me first semester and drove me all the way to my condo in Mandaluyong and who will never be forgotten for having introduced me to the gastronomic delight that is the UP isaw.
Of course, I never did. 😦
We have 5 weeks though, and like he said, 5 weekends left. It might mean sacrificing a little gym time, a little volleyball time, maybe a little study time. It’ll mean a little less sleep, a bit more exhaustion and a lot more stress. But it’s Kuya R and I do love him.
In a way, it’s a wakeup call. How many more friends have I left fallen by the wayside while I let myself get completely sucked in by law school? Plenty.
When my law school friends ask me why I make time for volleyball, dance class, the gym… why I read constantly and maintain a blog… why I’m sneaking in guitar lessons in between typical hellish weeks in law school… when I should be putting in more study time and maybe vying for the top spots. I always say, that while I do study, put in the hours and obsess over school like everyone else, I try to remember that it’s not just about getting good grades, it’s about living a good life.
Hmmm…seems I haven’t been living as good a life as I thought I was.
RESOLUTION: Nurture relationships past and present.
***
I’ll start by going to Tagaytay with my AYLC friends tomorrow. AND finding a way to sneak in a little quality time with my buddy R in between that, studying AND the Conflicts of Law tournament.
A woman pulled in 20 different directions at any given time… that’s me. 🙂
Keeping it frothy 
Karra
/ February 18, 2006This entry really hit home. One of my best, best friends from high school went to the US to get married and stay there permanently last year. Since medyo biglaan yung alis niya (we thought she’d be leaving in a month’s time pa), and I had Crim2 Finals the very next day, I wasn’t able to attend her despedida.
In law school, they teach us that in making our list of priorities in life, studying is next only to breathing. Extra-curricular activities in school maybe come a distant third.
Do friends even make that list nowadays? How about family? We’re so caught up in this race that we forget about the people who helped us get here in the first place.
But, hey, realizing it is the first step. May we all strive to live well-rounded lives with the people who matter, from now on. =)