.PASCAL 08-09.

The moment this letter came to its existence, our trysts are already numbered. In a fleeting moment, without you noticing it, it will be over. Fate has brought us back together and at the end, fate will also be the one to secede us. A separation that is, and will be irrevocable.

We didn’t start big. All of us were like prisoners confined in our own way of perception about the things around us, about the people around us. I for my part, have fears that longed to be trounced. I never really knew what to do from the start for there was plenty of you that need to be discovered. Though some of you have been part of my dawning year, still, a mass of you is left undiscovered.

The path to discovery was never easy, and much to say not that very accommodating. Inconsistent and frantic schedules, health delinquencies and subject mood swings were the things that encumbered my way towards becoming your full-pledged adviser. I know at the very least, adjustments would play a significant role in this responsibility I am in but I never knew it would be this challenging.

Moments passed and all the angst present seemed to be a routine with me getting used to it. Though still, my health does not jive with what I wanted to, I manage to keep things within my grasp.

Still the earth continued to rotate and to revolve around us. And in each passing day I became familiar with the people or should I say the individual persons I am assigned to be with it. I became more or less wanting to know them even better than just being their teacher…their adviser. It gives me the feeling of wanting them slowly to be more of a friend or a barkada than being a father, a foster father.

I love my class, most especially my Pascal kids. At first, I thought I would have a hard time dealing with them. I thought they would just be the normal, ordinary, insensitive, duty-bound students of a particular school. That we won’t build so much intimate relationship due to the fact that our regular engagements were trimmed down from three to two meetings. At this rate, I can say that, first impressions don’t last.

Time passed and all goes well for the both of us, me and my Pascal kids. We had so many accounts of exultant memoirs from school trips to feast day celebration. From my memorable birthday fête to our cheery lunch together; from Intramurals to subject-related activities to their most awaited Juniors and Seniors Promenade. But they had activities which are worth mentioning but I wasn’t able to be present physically like their recollection and class mass and some activities that my frail body can’t comprehend. Though circumstances may not be at our side at times, I see to it that I make myself available whenever their need for me arises.

Aside from blissful memories, we also had some unanticipated and heartrending state of affairs like the issue on exams and the unwanted attitudes of my children. Some of them are their internal problems regarding this and that which I ought not to mention. Some of them I could lucidly recall and remember while some are not really worth imagining for they may have been submerge to the depths of our history as a family.

Family… is what I have treated my advisory class. I felt that they have been my very own children for the past year that we’ve shared. Though I have been an adviser before, the fold of events this time is way too different from the former one. Establishing a deep and close relationship with them was unexpected. From the year we had cherished I could say that I would want to return to this era over and over again. I will never get tired of being your adviser and seeing you people again even though you had individual differences.

But enough of this history class, let me just take this opportune to say for the last time all the things I wanted to say to my beloved Pascal kids. First, I really would like to apologize for all the short-comings that I have done; for all the things I have failed to do as your adviser, your foster father and as your friend. I would also like to ask for apologies if there were times that I have placed your life in jeopardy, I have judged you, I have mislead you, wronged you and I have despised you as an individual. Deem me; I am really sincere with my apologies.

Second, I would like to thank everyone for all the simple things you have done to me. For making me proud in all the accomplishments you had for the past school year. For sharing me all the small details of your life, for making me part of your life. Thank you also to all the things we have shared though they may be gloomy, irritating, funny and delightful. I really appreciated that. Though sometimes things between us don’t go so well, still we managed to be the best of friends.

In this state right now, I really can’t thank enough. I just wish that God will give us another time to be together again like this as a class or maybe we could stay like this as long as we want to. But the world turns, and every ciao has a corresponding adieu. We need to move forward, face the world as new persons and leave our past memories behind. We all have to be strong and be thankful that once in our merry lives we have met each other, we have shared something that is and will be incomparable to others.

Letting you all go would be one of the toughest things that I need to endure. I know I can’t have a hold to all of you forever, that my role is over and I need to let you all go.Nevertheless, I know, wherever we will be, we will be happy and we would once cherish the moment that we were once a family…a happy Pascal family.

I am so lucky that I was your adviser but I am the luckiest person knowing that you were part of class Pascal 08-09.

Always remember that “mahal na mahal kayo ni siO.paO.”

2009.04.04