try to stay awake and remember my name

How exactly do boys look like when they start growing up? Hilarious, if you ask me. It’s like a silly game of pretend wherein I watch 8-year old boys in suits and ties as they act as if in corporate pursuits.

Of course, this isn’t exactly how it played out last weekend when I saw the boys I haven’t seen for 7 months for Barry’s birthday; at least not to the very last detail. For example, everyone was dressed down, even Mac and Clark who are normally gussied up. Really, it’d seem as if nothing’s changed – all the funny banters and inside jokes seem to have remained the same. Looking closely, the abundance of alcohol seems to be the only thing that’s new. With Barry working for San Miguel Corp., it’s no wonder that his own party would have a keg or two and all kinds of San Miguel products in tow. But once everyone’s settled down, and drank enough cups of beer, and ate enough chicken skin, I noticed the conversation turning more and more mature. There’s talk of company policies, and which mogul has bought shares of which company, or what article is in which sunday newspaper. Seriously? These are the boys I watched run in shorts playing benteuno around the batibot, or walk awkwardly across the room on students night to ask someone to dance or place silly red cards (ala F4) on my locker and tease me endlessly for putting “joking” on my talent section in the yearbook. These are boys who named their cars “red riding hood,” “snow white” and “black swan.” Now, they’re all grown up. One’s an architect. Another’s already planning on settling down with le girlfriend in Korea. And one of these boys will be a father soon, too. So amidst the things that haven’t changed (like their cars’ names, and the usual nonsense such as securing Patrick’s child’s college education if he decides to name the baby Megatron if it's a boy or Megatrona if it’s a girl), is a change I welcome with open hands (and a sides of laughter and disbelief): maturity. 

Change is good. This, I tell myself everyday when the thought of it scares the shit out of me. Then again, maybe change isn’t as good as we package it to be. Maybe it’s having people to change with that makes the difference.