Originally ‘To the LAE Passer’ but I’m feeling pensive tonight.

***

Around this time one year ago, I distinctly remember your emo face as we sat at the shed in front of Molave waiting for Buduy, and you were lamenting how you were the only member of our beloved little team who would be left behind in UP.

***

Sometimes I think you might have been my younger brother in one of our past lives, given how strongly I feel about looking after you.

Bencio said that I scared the hell out of him that fateful Execoun meeting when he dissed you and I was fuming as I answered back to defend you (and Denzie). I have no qualms about giving you my Healing Salve (partly because you actually thank me for it, unlike the others who even have to ask how they were healed when there was no Regen). Most of all, they’re ridiculous - the prayers I find myself uttering to God when I and la-la-la share the same bus ride home.

We must have been brother-sister in some past life. That, or I am so grateful for your stint as my Pusoy Tutor #3.

***

There was one time when you told me that you weren’t sure why you took PolSci. You would have been better off taking a course related to computers, you said. (And given your crazy passwords with the random letters, numbers and characters, you might have been right.) Because you like tinkering with stuff and fixing problems. And then you said something emo and I rolled my eyes.

I wonder now if you still feel the same thing about your course.

***

Sometime before December you texted me and said the LAE schedule had been moved. I told you to make the most out of the Christmas vacation and study the reviewer you borrowed from me. You said bahala na pag di ka pumasa, magtatrabaho ka nalang sa Coke. I told you that you are one of those lucky bastards, like Kenn and my friend Pau. You’re just born lucky. No matter how hard you screw up, everything turns out alright for you. (Not that that you don’t deserve it.)

Who knows. Maybe you did study. Or maybe LAE is just what it is – Law Aptitude Exam. Either you have that aptitude or you don’t, and you have it.

All I know is that you didn’t even take a bath when you took LAE, but you passed it anyway.

***

You saw it coming. On the ride to Moonleaf one week ago, you were telling me about the things that scared you about going to law school. I don’t remember what I replied. The only thing I remember is that for the nth time, I told you to quit smoking.

This is what I hope I replied: You’re a bit lazy at acads and a bit of a coward for running away to Baguio during THAT Sining, but you’re smart and you think differently (at least at Dota). And you’re a genuine person who never gets tired of helping other people. That’s bound to get you somewhere.

***

I just hope that wherever this gets you to, you’ll stay the same. I hope you’ll still be that guy who grabs my hand and disturbedly says “Will you stop doing that” when I make a gun-cleaning motion, who remembers my birthday even if I forget yours, who takes my straw and sticks it into my milk tea for me because apparently I always spill liquids.

I hope to God though, that you stop peeing in your pants and hitting your head on dashboards when you’re drunk. And yet again, that you stop smoking for the sake of those squiggly little things in your… no I’m not gonna put the whole description here.

***

Around this time one year ago, I distinctly remember your emo face as we sat at the shed in front of Molave waiting for Buduy and you were lamenting how you were the only member of our beloved little team who would be left behind in UP. I used to think that after this April, you’d finally join us out. You hate being left behind. I know.

I guess you’re gonna have to stay there for a bit longer, eh?