MY BITTERSWEET STATEMENTS IN SUPPORT OF THE FREEDOM TO EXPRESS

THE FRIEND YOU-ONLY-KINDA-MEET-ONCE-IN-FOUR-OR-FIVE-YEARS-AND-IT'S-LIKE-THERE'S-NOT-ANY-YEAR-LOST-IN-BETWEEN

You.Yes, you...
Aren't you the same person I saw walking across Havana last Friday? With the long dread locks - totally different - but then, i remember your walk..:D
I knew it was you!

Do you remember me? When life for you was still as simple as a jeepney ride and you were much younger? Has it been long? Man, it is..

I knew you will be what you are today..Surrounded by people..Freaking unique..Really special..I'm proud of you. :D All the years that saw me up and down, full, troubled, happy - there have been mornings when I'd wake up asking myself whatever happened to Ronald..where you are, what you're doing,who you're with..your mom, your dad..
Nice to see you finding your niche. you looked absolutely happy! :D

After that time I saw you, I headed home, digged up my old treasures..And in that silver can, I saw your old notes. I carry them with me in the middle of my marriage, separation, reconciliation & happiness..All in 14 years...Funny.:D..It's not to mean anythin' else but to tell you I'm still your friend, who saw you when you were just damn tryin' hard filming experimental video shot-in-the-garage...haha..Your what, alter ego?
No matter what, I'm still proud of you just the same.

Your talent brought you to where you are now. Live it.
At our age, it's so soothing to the soul when you come across the people who were with you when life was still not complicated. It reminds you of the very ethereally simple things that really matter to you now - like not having to ride the LRT anymore because you have a car , or not having to sleep the 8 hrs required because you're busy earning moolah...Or just watch people walking pass you while you sit on a bench in a park...Those things...

I'm okay..My 2 daughters have grown up..I'm workin' my ass up serving imperialist Americans. :D
Hope to see you around..And if I do, I really wish it's a first-person-second-person perspective kind of thing. :D

That was my Friendster message to my long, lost friend. Didn't leave my number...But after one day, I got a call from a man whose voice I couldn't forget, whose name I'll
always remember...:D

He used to call me his security blanket, I used to call him my alter ego.
When I'd say yes, he'd say no..When something's good for me, he'd say it's not.
The last time we were together, he cooked sinigang for me while I doted on his pet mouse
under the stairs of his apartment.Man, that was years ago - when I was still young and free!
Ronald was always the person telling me I have a gift to be a brilliant writer.
We always wrote each other. And it was such a sweet thing seeing him keep every letter I gave in a box...I, too, did the same. I carried his notes wherever life brought me..
The rest was history, though it was a cliche to say...

I was proud of him! He used to do those experimental videos and would draw caricatures of myself...I knew even then that his talent would lead him somewhere. As early as college, he have grown independent cuz his mom was in the States while his dad worked here and he's left alone being an only child.
That began my belief that his independence will help him battle the struggles of life.
He had this thing that draws people toward him. He's always surrounded by nice-looking people...I never associated myself with them..Our friendship was something that we keep to ourselves, with the few people we're both closed with.

1 -BRAVED THRU IT TO ARTICULATE!