Last night (oct21) Mama & I attended the 10th year anniversary celebration of MTG (Mathematics Trainers Guild) at the Century Park Hotel. We didn’t have any plans of going (the ticket was rather expensive and I wasn’t really that eager to go), but since the organizers gave us complimentary tickets (I guess they really wanted everyone to be there) and my friends said they were going (I found this out through mama …hehe, our moms get to talk to each other more often than we get to talk to each other), I decided to attend.
I never considered myself to be really intimately “attached” with the organization, though I do have friends there— now that I think about it, maybe it’s because I didn’t really enjoy math per se, though I did pretty well in that field. Also, MTG had earned a bad connotation in my vocabulary since it “stole” most of my Saturday mornings from me during my elementary years (in high school this has become a privilege because I get to be exempted from PE and CAT), as well as some of my summer vacations (we have a week of in-house intensive training and then everyday training for the rest of the summer if one gets chosen to be one of the country’s representatives in international competitions.) There were even years when I “rebelled” and chose to attend our church’s summer conferences over the in-house training (come on, like anyone would prefer to endure a week of math training, morning till evening, if you could instead enjoy a week of games, seminars, singing, workshops, and other fun stuff…unless solving math problems is your hobby, or your parents have blackmailed you into doing so, or you know your crush would be there too..?) Of course there were consequences to my rebellion— I missed out on the opportunity to go abroad, enjoy the sights and company of friends, and compete during our extra time, haha. (ok, before you start thinking about pursuing a career in such competitions, I think you ought to know that our government does not have funds for this, so you have to finance your own expenses, unless you’re from one of those very supportive schools who pay for everything and even give you pocket money. This was another reason why I wasn’t so enthusiastic about it, because I don’t want my parents to worry about where they’re going to get money to support my “career.”) also, I lagged behind while everyone else improved their skills.
It was a surreal experience. There were so many old, familiar faces (at first I can’t even put a name on many of them), most of which I haven’t seen for at least three years, and almost all of whom are calling me by the name Kristine (I am known by that name in MTG because I have a batchmate named Tina; also, when I was younger I was not used to introducing myself by my nickname…very few call me Kristine nowadays.) It brought back so many memories— that of exhausting trainings (wherein only the few blessed dedicated ones would listen and solve while the rest would pretend to do so); the sleepless nights we had shared after the trainings playing killer, truth or consequence, pusoy dos (it was in MTG that I’ve learned to play card games aside from Monkey-monkey), or whatever game we could think of; our wonderful trips abroad, and the stupid feeling many of us feel after the contest questions are handed out; and our chance to kick each other’s asses when we meet during local interschool competitions. Of course, there were also those juicy rumors about who likes who, and being one of the very few girls who get to enter this boys’ world of numbers, I got linked to no less than three people. (which never fails to bring out my taray attitude…tsk tsk… i’m just not good at handling this sort of things…)
But a lot of things have changed. All of us totoy’s and nene’s have grown up a little bit now— more mature-looking faces (some fortunate ones have even grown taller) replaced the carefree and sometimes mischievous expressions we used to carry around. Most of the kids who used to have smooth-sailing academic careers have now learned what it means to struggle for a decent, or at least, passing grade, thanks to college; though as always, there are still some aliens who manage to stay on top (you know who you are, haha.) As expected, most of them pursued a career involving math (e.g. Engineering, Accounting/Finance, Computer Science, Physics, or just plain, hard-core Math.) And the past love-team issues which used to annoy me at times (because it involved me and I used to be pikon, hehe) are now but hilarious memories.
The funny thing about the event is that noone seemed to listen to the many speakers they invited. The parents were busy updating each other on what has happened to their children, while the students have their own conversations, talking about anything and everything. (There were table assignments that separated the parents from the students and the students according to the different batches. Sadly, the girls’ table— take note, they got to fit all the girls of around four batches in one table, while the guys had to be separated into many tables because there were too many of them— was very far from that of the guys, and so we didn’t get to talk to most of them that much. Thankfully, my closest friends were in the same table with me...hi mikki, tina, and abi!) It was a riot—imagine hundreds of people who haven’t seen each other for a long time gathered together in one place. How I wish there was more time for this riot.
I didn’t expect that I would enjoy the party this much. It was only then that I realized that I actually miss these people, that even if I didn’t get to know most of them well in the past, they have been part of my life, and that’s what makes them so precious.
Currently listening to: Dishwalla
Currently feeling: nostalgic