Over A Cup Of Coffee Or A Bottle Of Beer

Friends gather in laughs and in tears, or sometimes just to chill. Last weekend, my friends and I celebrated Jarvin's despedida because he'll be reassigned to Cebu for work. I thought when he said he'll be back next year, he meant after 12 months (and that's a really long time!) but it turns out he'll be there only until January. After dinner in an Italian restaurant in Greenhills, we went to this very cozy cafe in Katipunan where the 1980s atmosphere make you forget that you have to wake up at 5:30am the next day.

It's interesting how the topics of our conversation have grown over the years. Back in elementary, we mainly talked about our subjects and teachers. How difficult this math quiz was, why this teacher is so fixated on one student (favoritism) and what your last confession was about.

High school came and the conversation revolved around people and their relationships. Who's with who, how do you court this girl and why the hell did this perfect couple broke up?

College was a whole new arena and this gave people an opportunity to “re-invent” themselves and establish who they really are. Discussions were more idealistic and forward looking – about our future jobs, dreams of traveling around the world and legacies we want to leave long after we're gone.

Now that we're out of school, the idealism brought by college is toned down as the “real” world dilutes it into something more practical. We talk about stability, raising our own families and growing our “retirement fund.” When are you planning settle down/ marry? What name are you going to give to your son? Where is he going to study? How long are you going to stick with your current job?

I wonder what we'll talk about when we're middle aged. Maybe we'll be more health conscious and workaholic by then. By the time we're sixty, we'll talk more about our grandsons/daughters, mistakes we committed in life and our plans to atone for these mistakes.

By the time we're eighty, I'd like to think that my high school friends and I are still intact. We'll go back to the same places where we hung out and converse more. With all the technological innovations we have right now such as emails, cellphones, Skype and God knows what technology after sixty years, nothing can compare with having your friends gathered in front for you, either with a cup of coffee or a bottle of beer.