The New Kid on the Block

Did you know the boy band New Kids on the Block way back in the late 1980s? They were the cute young boys who danced and sang their way to the hearts of teenage girls, similar to the Backstreet Boys of the 90s. Do you know their songs Hangin' Tough, Cover Girl, or Step by Step? If you do, well, I bet you're one of those screaming girls and swooning over their good looks. But I really am sorry because I'm not going to talk about them.

What I'm going to talk about is what it felt like being a new kid in town, a neophyte – dipping a tenderfoot. Why? Because we got a new colleague in our group and it's the first thing that popped in my mind as I was brushing my teeth after my long lunch. We all had gone through that phase, unless of course, you stayed as a hermit in your own home, home-schooled and never worked a day in your life.

I'm not going to tell you about going to school for the first time, because, well, when you entered Nursery, everybody was a newbie. And for the life of me, I can't remember a single memory of that supposed to be memorable day. First school day as a first grader? Nope, all my classmates were the same as the one I had during my Prep year, or should we say K2 as what they call it now. Same thing for my freshman year in high school, in fact, I’ve been hanging around with these kids since we were toddlers. But let me tell you a story about this new kid back in our freshman year.

First day of entering the coolest crowd, high school, we were so excited and couldn't wait to take the plunge and enter the world of boys and girls. We were this close-knit gang of around forty girls and boys who've been together for 6 years at the least. We knew we'd still be sorted in one section, the honor class that is. Yes, we're that arrogant and proud; we were the alumni of the school. All first years were gathered in one corner of the gymnasium, one by one, a name was called to join the group in the middle to know which section they belong to. In the midst of the new faces, one stood out, well, one thing was because he was tall. He's got the face of angel, probably an exaggeration that time, but he had a clear fair skin, bright brown eyes, healthy brownish hair, a very pointed nose, small lips. The epitome of an Adonis, except that he wasn't dark only tall and handsome – a real mestizo. Saying that the girls around me giggled and swooned in delight was an understatement, me included of course. One by one our names were called and got a bit disappointed that only quite a handful of new names joined ours, they were already nearing the end of the alphabet and yet Mr. Pogi still sat in one corner, waiting. Then all of a sudden a new name was called and he stood up and joined our crowd. Oh, you could hear the silent gasps from the boys and excited goshes of the girls! We now have the new crush ng bayan in our midst. So the first thing we did when we got to our new classroom, the new fellows would have to speak in front and introduce themselves. We all waited with bated breath for him to speak and when he did, all our dreams came crumbling down. And so I went back to eyeing the guy who had been my crush for three years, at the least. I wonder now what would have Mr. Pogi felt that time, like some top-grade piece of meat dangling in front of a hungry pack of wolves? Did he spoke offensively intending to turn us all off?

Here's a personal one, really now. My Dad was a branch manager in one of the government banks, the Philippine government that is. One day he went home and casually told me to join him to Puerto Princesa in Palawan. I thought to myself, is this man joking or what? I just started my Junior year in high school a couple of weeks before, and here he was smiling and telling me to leave my friends of fourteen years. I was adamant, and so I told him, I can’t leave my friends, I love my school – I was having the best time of my life – and I don't know how to make new friends anymore. I pleaded that they leave me under my grandmother's care and in less that two years I'll be off to college anyway. But my pleas went to deaf ears and so I braved the whole new world. It was hard coming from a place where almost everyone knows you and going to a new place where you know no one. At the first few days it was kind of fun because you could do stupid stuffs not caring if somebody saw you and would spread the news around, but my Dad's shadow started catching up on me, and so I must keep on my toes. My Mom made me choose which school I'd go to, enter a private school ran by nuns or a laboratory high school of the state college. Though I went to private school in the past, I was quite apprehensive of a school handled by nuns (they were kind of strict, priests are a bit cooler), and besides they said that the laboratory high school only selects the best students and population is very small, kind of an elite group. So, my Mom and I went to enroll and got the shock of our life when they asked us 60 pesos for my school fees. The principal explained one by one where these fees would go to, like the school paper, some books and a few miscellaneous fees, when she saw that we were open-mouthed. My Mom just laughed and said it's all right, we could pay for it, after all the years of paying at least a thousand for one school year.

My first day, I started after lunch time, the driver drove me to my new school, like some rich, bitchy kid (actually I was terrified to my bones and didn’t want to leave the car) I alighted a few paces from the high school building. I'm not wearing the school uniform so I stood out; every one had their eyes on me, I asked softly where's the room for the third years and they pointed it to me. I entered the room with students milling around waiting for the teacher. I guess I had this unadulterated fear in my eyes when I looked for a place to sit, when this girl from the back raised her arms and motioned for me to come over. I let out some air and breathe freely. Soon almost everyone was surrounding me and asking questions, like where I came from, they assumed I'm from Manila – they asked me if I know such and such – I corrected and said I am from Mindoro and they started firing the same questions but of different names. I just shook my head for each name, and thought why do these kids think that I ought to know every gawd dumb soul from that place. Now I knew what it was like to be a top-grade piece of meat dangling in front of a hungry pack of wolves.

So much for the long story, I would like to receive with great pleasure our new member Ate Glow. Welcome to the crazy gang. We are loud and fun but will be there to help. For TFC subscribers, all together now: Kung gusto mong makipag-chikahan o wala lang, mag-LDD libreng tawag ka!