Reunited, and It Feels so Good
/The year was 1970. FL and I were college freshmen at the University of the Philippines (UP). We met during the heady days of student activism. It was the late JR, a close high school classmate and a block mate of FL who brought me to join a moderate mass organization because she thought I would fit in. She also wanted to introduce me to FL who was also from her hometown, came from a Catholic high school, and whom she described as “cute.” So I joined the discussion groups (DG) at the old Faculty Center, and what followed was a relationship between two teenagers who were mutually attracted to each other and who were into a common cause.
University of the Philippines Faculty Center
Dating at the time consisted mainly of walks around campus after DGs, occasional snacks at the canteen, and a movie in Cubao. Maybe a few hugs and kisses here and there, as physical intimacy beyond that was a no-no in that priggish era. Talking and getting to know each other occupied most of our time together, and that was fun and substantial enough to form a connection. Such were the simple joys of youth. I continued to be focused on my studies while being a member of the mass org. Unbeknownst to me, FL was getting more heavily involved in the [revolutionary] Movement and he had other plans. He had to be moved to another mass org by the middle of 1971, and from then on, our interactions and meet-ups became few and far between. We hardly saw each other. I didn’t know that FL had decided to go full-time with the Movement.
Cubao in the 1970s
One late afternoon in October 1971, FL asked me to meet him at the AS canteen where he told me “what we had before is now gone.” No other reason was given, as we had no disagreements or arguments. It was a parting of ways, a clean split. I felt left in the lurch. It hurt because he was my very first love, innocent as I was then. But one’s young life had to go on after brushing away the tears. I decided to relegate the memories of him to the deep dark recesses of my mind and to move on. Since then, we had absolutely no contact whatsoever; we only heard about each other sporadically.
U.P. Palma Hall also known as AS (College of Arts and Sciences) (Source: Urban Roamer)
Then came a fateful day in June 2018, 47 years later. A Sydney-based ex-comrade went on holiday to Manila and organized a reunion with ex-comrades of the mass org, including those who could join thru Facebook. FL and I met each other again, virtually, and from then on we started chatting through Messenger. He said that in the last few years, he had wanted to find me if only to apologize for having broken up with me abruptly and to now offer an explanation. It was out of consideration for me because he knew then that I was the career-girl type with ambitions, and he realized we were going on different life paths. I found that to be so gentlemanly of him and was touched.
I accepted his apology, and what followed was a rekindling of the flame that was ignited like in a time and space continuum. From when we separated when I was aged 17 and FL was 19, we met again in propitious circumstances at 64 and 66, respectively. Within that span of time, FL and I had relationships with other partners, raised families, worked for a living, faced our life challenges, learned our lessons, and found ourselves both single again. I fulfilled my career dreams and life purpose, having emigrated to Australia and settled in Sydney.
“We just picked up from where we left off. It was a matter of trust – in each other and in the ways of the Universe.”
What were the chances of us meeting again after 47 years of absolutely no contact, and realizing that the intensity of the passion has not abated at all? It was as if we were placed in a hiatus for us to learn life’s lessons separately the hard way with other people. FL says “two things you cannot lose, one, that which was never really yours and the other, that which is truly yours”. I appreciate that FL released me all those decades ago to enable me to fly my own wings and go far and wide, only to return to him to roost.
We are now on our “camino” journey together, not necessarily on the Camino de Santiago, which we had planned on doing in pre-Covid times, but wherever we find ourselves to be. We are hoping to spend the rest of our lives in Australia. It felt that time and space just collapsed seamlessly from the time we broke up to the time we met each other again. Strange that the same feelings are still there. Unadulterated. We just picked up from where we left off. It was a matter of trust – in each other and in the ways of the Universe. Come to think of it, what he and I had before had always been there. Fate had meant the love to be.
Nina Beza is a BS Food Technology 1975 and MS Food Science 1978 graduate of UP. She has been working in the computer industry since 1981 and is currently a staff member at the University of Sydney as an IT professional.
