look at all the people

"In Kong Hua, you're a big fish in a little pond. In ADMU, you'll be a tiny fish in an ocean."

- Mom

In many ways, Kong Hua School is indeed a little pond. Population-wise, each level has more or less a hundred students. Multiply that by four and you've got roughly five hundred students in the whole high school, as opposed to Xavier University High School's whopping student population of...

Well, I'd rather not do the math. I don't want to risk getting any wrong information published online again! (lame reference to: old article about Noynoy Aquino's girlfriend)

Anyway, in my school, everybody knows everybody. It's literally a world without strangers - and that's one of the things I love most about it!

The faces I see as I walk through the hallways, those are the same faces I've been seeing around for more than thirteen years of my life (nope, I've never, ever transferred schools). Sure, classmates and schoolmates come and go, but a lot of the friends I made back in my first year of school are still my friends right now.

Hmm. I guess this is about the right time to introduce to you the three friends who'll be coming along with me to study in Manila. I figure that I'll be writing a lot about them as well as I'll be writing about myself, so I think it's best if I made the introductions now. You know, to save time. :) (Also, it kind of fits in with the theme of this post)

So, ladies and gentlemen, here they are. My Manila Buddies. (Kidding. I'm not really calling them that.)

1. Nerick ......

   Ever since we became classmates in my very first year at Kong Hua, I've been calling him Jason, but since there's another Jason coming up on the list, he'll mostly be known on this blog as Nerick..

   Like I said, Nerick's been my classmate ever since. I'm proud to say he has long been a member of that rare male species we call Gentlemen. He's a great writer, great speaker, and just a very great guy overall. Going to take up Applied Mathematics in Finance (or something fancy-sounding like that) in Ateneo de Manila University.

2. Joseph

   Like Nerick, Joseph has been my classmate ever since I can remember. He used to be really shy, but now he's quite the conversationalist. He's one of the best writers in my batch and he's the first one I turn to in times of computer or homework-related woe.

   He mentioned in his valedictory speech that he sometimes feels out-of-place with his own batch. So I'm really hoping that he finds his niche in society when he goes to study Electronics and Communications Engineering or Computer Engineering in University of the Philippines, Diliman.

3. Jason

   See, this is the Jason I told you about earlier. (Come to think of it, I'm going to Manila with all "J" people!)

   Unlike Nerick and Joseph, whom I've known my entire life, I only met Jason during our first year in high school, when he transferred to Kong Hua from his old school in Valencia. We became close in our Sophomore year, and he's been one of my best friends since then!

   Jason is (need I say it?) also a great writer. He loves to watch and draw anime', so he gets along with my bestest friend Janine juuuuust fine :)

   Originally, his plan was to take up Architecture at the University of Santo Thomas. He was so convinced that he was going there and I was so convinced I wouldn't, I thought it was pretty ironic that at some point in the past few months it actually turned out that he'd be going to ADMU and I'd be going to UST! (False notion, by the way. I'm so over UST :P)

Anyway, I digress. It turns out that Jason had passed Business Management with Honors in ADMU. His parents were so impressed that he had passed an Honors course, they told him to go to ADMU instead of UST. And that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Now I think these people are worth mentioning as well. They're going to Manila too!

• Karen - I've known her since forever too, but we haven't always been classmates. Fortunately, this year we were! She's going to study Culinary Arts at ENDERUN! :D
• Michael - Also one of the people I've known since way back when! He's deciding between ADMU and ENDERUN :)
• Paul - My computer-savvy friend from XUHS. Our mutual friend Anna introduced us during a speech competition! He's going to ADMU :)
• Ariane - We met online at a Candymag.com forum! I don't wanna jinx it, but I have a feeling we're going to get a long really well :D She's going to ADMU!
• Jett - Also one of my friends from Candy! She's so funny and friendly and smart! I hope we end up sharing a dorm, because there's just so many things we have in common :) She's going to UP!
• Larz and Sherlaine - my two friends from Abba's Orchard. My friend Kabu introduced me to them (and he's going to UP Baguio, by the way!) and I'm glad he did because they're just the cooooolest! They're both going to ADMU! :D

There are a lot more, but I'm not too chummy with them so I'll cut the list right there.

I have a big feeling that I'm going to get to know some very amazing people and make some really nice friends in ADMU.

So what if I'm only a tiny little speck in the vast, Starbucks-loving ocean that is the Ateneo de Manila? I'll be the happiest speck on Earth so long as I'm surrounded by great people in a great community, and that's all I'll ever need. :)

(P.S. I didn't inform any of these people that I used their names in my blog - I hope nobody uses this information for the wrong reasons!)