Sunday, June 11, 2006

10 Years of BWP

As my good friend Macel pointed out recently, it's apparently the 10th Year Anniversary of our barkada. WOW! It never crossed my mind that my friends and I have been a barkada for that long already...and I never knew we even had an anniversary! HAHA! But...you can always count on Macel to remember those itsy-bitsy things that we most of the time neglect but actually matter a lot.

So, in commemoration of our 10th Year Anniversary, which up until now we don't know the exact date (any of you guys willing to research on the exact start of classes for SSC on school year 1996-1997???) and is actually a 10-month-long celebration (since one school year is 10 months long...), I will be sharing to you guys some bits and pieces of fact about our barkada, better known as BWP.

You're probably wondering what BWP stands for. Well, it's basically Barkadang Walang Panget. HAHA! Nice name, huh? Actually, you can substitute any word for the "P" part of the acronym, like: Barkadang Walang Pango, Barkadang Walang Panty, Barkadang Walang Point, Barkadang Walang Plan...any other "P" word you can think of...but basically, we're the Barkadang Walang Panget. The name was actually coined by a former member of the group, Millan. According to her, someone asked what's the name of our group and the first thing that came to mind was BWP...Barkadang Walang Panget...so there. That was the beginning of it. And I guess none of us had any qualms about it anyway (kasi lahat kami pretty! HAHA!) so the name just stuck.

We were originally 11 in the group: Arfie, Assunta, Aya, Diana, Joy, Macel, Maris, Meñez, Millan, Tiny, and Moi! But eventually, Meñez, Tiny & Millan drifted apart from the rest of the group leaving us with magic number 8

It's vague to me how we actually got together as a group. But I believe we started forming small groups of 2 or 3 persons which eventually came together and formed the entire barkada. And this happened throughout the course of one school year: School Year 1996-1997, when we all were in 2nd Year High School (section 2R) in St. Scho. Probably the "event" that started it all was our project in one of our subjects (I can't remember the name of the subject...HELE? PerDev???), where we were asked to visit a place (e.g. park, public library, etc.) assigned to us and report about it. We were asked to form groups consisting of 6-7 persons (or was it 5-6???), go to the assigned place, then report about it in class. It was Arfie, Aya, Assu, Diana, Maris & Millan who were groupmates then and they went to Enchanted Kingdom. I think that was the "event" that started it all. The circumstances that transpired in between that trip to EK and the formation of our group is all a blur to me now but bottomline is, we didn't know back then but that was already history in the making (naks!).

Now that you have a short history of our group, let me share to you some snippets of the different personalities that comprise the group. In other words, let me introduce to you the 7 (excluding me of course) other members of the barkada.

Arfie...One of the beauty queens of the barkada. She joined Binibining Pilipinas and Mutya, which just proves our point that indeed we are a Barkadang Walang Panget. She's a writer so creative that she practically composed the write-ups for each of us in our Pax '99 yearbook. And did I mention that she draws really well too??? That's Arfie...always determined and a gal just brimming with lots and lots and lots of creative juices.

Assunta...She's the tomboyish girl with a great bod (nice abs and...hmmm...lemme just say that her vital stats are to-die-for!!!). She's the perennial VP of the class, running around with her clipboard in tow. She's the barkada's AVON lady (HAHA! And ANEW girl to Sadie Ü). It's a running joke in the barkada that her actual work in AVON is not what she claims it to be but rather a bra model for the company. I won't be surprised if one day I wake up and learn that she's already the VP of AVON (HAHA! Hanngang sa pagtanda, VP pa rin!!!).

Aya...Sitsirya products, anyone??? Aya is like an Energizer Bunny: always on the go and she just keeps on going and going and going... Her family owns Sitsirya, a company selling Filipino food products (with stalls around Metro Manila malls & tiangges), and my dad is actually one of their suki (I love their Pastillas de Leche in a jar!). She always has just enough energy for a night out despite having a tiring day at work. She's always game! Isang aya mo lang, game na agad sya (as long as she has no other plans).

Diana...For the longest time, she has always been Sadie to me (which is her surname). But now i'm learning to call her by her first name, Diana. She's the other gal who joined a beauty pageant in our barkada (Binibining Pilipinas), which, again, proves my point that we are indeed a Barkadang Walang Panget. She's such a hardworker, with rackets every day even on weekends. I admire her for being very independent and she's the best person in the barkada to ask about make-up (what brands are OK and those that are not) and beauty regiments that work!

Joy...She's the group's Papa Bear.Ü The yearbook describes her as "Miss Prim and Proper" and the "queen of Discretion" basically because she is all that. The group can be really very rowdy at times (especially after not seeing each other for a while) but Joy will just always be the silent observer...just listening to our rants and raves about love, life and anything and everything under the sun. We'll surely miss this lovely lady.

Macel...She's my official hugger...Ü Especially in college, when things are just not turning out right, i'll just text her and meet up with her to ask for a much-needed hug. When we went out to the real world (e.g. naging office girls na kami...), and she was no longer campus-wide away, it just hit me how therepeutic (to me at least) and important her hugs are. That's why I try and hug her as much as I can when we see each other...investment kumbaga...for those upcoming depressing situations in my life. HEHE! She's also the first person in the barkada to get hitched! To her first boyfriend for that matter! Congratz again, Macel & Mike!

Maris...The former Nick Carter fanatic. Her room used to be plastered with Nick posters and her TV set tuned-in to MTV to catch the latest Backstreet Boys hit. Good thing she got over that phase (we all did) and is now very much busy manning her 7-Eleven franchise along Buendia. You gotta hand it to this girl...she knows what she wants and she knows how to get it. Her house (i think) is the official tambayan-slash-meeting-place of the barkada (we've had numerous sleep-overs at her place) coz it's the most accesible house amongst us (plus, it's near the mall...).

Well, that's the entire group in one blog. But, before I finish this off, let me just mention the extended members of the group, a.k.a. the significant others: Lesmes (Arfie's S.O.), Jomike (Aya's S.O.), Noel (Diana's S.O.), Mike (Macel's hubby), and Rex (Maris' S.O...ako nag-match sa dalawang yan! HEHE!).

So...cheers to the 10 years of experiences, fun and laughter that we had and more cheers to the upcoming experiences, fun and laughter that we will be having! Love y'all guys! *HUGZ!* and *MUAH!*


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BWP Through The Years...



(L-R; Top: Diana, Aya, Arfie; Bottom: Millan, Assu, Maris; circa 1996)



BWP by the stairs...'96



Aya, Assu, Macel & Candy '96



Goofing around...'96



Class Picture Time! Circa '97



By the falls @ Villa Escudero, Feb. 21, 1997



Arfie, Diana, Candy & Macel @ Escudero, Feb. 21, 1997



Clockwise from left: Millan, Candy, Arfie, Meñez, Diana, Maris, Assu & Tiny



Picture-Picture! Take 2!



Clockwise from left: Arfie, Candy, Assu, Maris, Diana, Joy, Macel & Aya



Minsan lang kami ma-complete!!! Ü



During my 19th Bday...Oct. 2001



Mian's Debut, Jan. 17, 2004



My despedida/bday celeb, Sep. 25, 2004



Eto kami ngayon...latest complete pix...September 2005...Ü

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh my gosh, i can't believe how long we've been "together". parang kahapon lang highschool pa tayo... i can even remember when all those pics were taken.

seeing those is in a way bittersweet for me... i miss all the antics and trouble we would almost get into in room 210. i miss hangging out at the "lunch counter" during breaks. but i know that our future only holds more.

now we're all working and living our lives as grown-ups, somehow we've managed to grow up together and as individuals. if life is a journey, it's great to have all you guys along on the trip. :) thanks bwp, for being there to keep me company.

Anonymous said...

oh my gosh, i can't believe how long we've been "together". parang kahapon lang highschool pa tayo... i can even remember when all those pics were taken.

seeing those is in a way bittersweet for me... i miss all the antics and trouble we would almost get into in room 210. i miss hangging out at the "lunch counter" during breaks. but i know that our future only holds more.

now we're all working and living our lives as grown-ups, somehow we've managed to grow up together and as individuals. if life is a journey, it's great to have all you guys along on the trip. :) thanks bwp, for being there to keep me company.