God works in circuitous ways, I realize.
I spent several nights brooding on what could possibly have prompted our good bishop and classmate to call me one late night in July, in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown in Tagbilaran. It was the 20th of July, when he asked me, the acknowledged hari-harion and alig-aligon of the batch, to spearhead a Virtual Reunion in place of the original face to face reunion that we planned to hold in August.
I was doubtful about the whole idea, believing that it was not going to work out. But who was I to refuse a bishop’s command? After the call, I shook my head, smirked, and said to myself, Oh, well, what an amusing but silly thought for a snore-ful sleep. It can never be done, nothing will ever happen to the good bishop’s fantasies.
Why blatantly pessimistic? Here’s why . . .
When Nox proposed last year to hold the Ruby Jubilee Reunion, not a whiff of enthusiasm did I sense from the members. To say that the responses were lukewarm was an understatement, prompting me tell him, “Kita raman tingale’ng duha mag-reunion ani Nox.” To which, Nox replied, “Ok ra gihapon. Padayon. Kita ra gud gihapon manoroy sa mga lugar nga atong tig-suroy sa una.”
Posted to our FB group, many saw the plan for a reunion, but no one made a comment, except for a hasty and almost-mechanical finger click to hit the thumbs up emoticon, like trying to swat off a nagging mosquito hoping it wont bother again. Then our bigwigs cited various reasons for being unable to attend, like conflict of schedule. The others were non-committal—“Mag-agad na laman mi sa injo.”
After so much time spent accommodating each one’s schedule, a date was finally agreed upon, prompting some for our members to book flights ahead of time. But then COVID-19 struck, providing an even more credible excuse not to attend.
However, as it turned out, not even a global pandemic could stop dreamers like us from holding a reunion. With that call from Soc asking me to spearhead a virtual reunion, we started the discussion that eventually led to greater things we didn’t imagine would happen.
As with every journey that starts with a single step—or perhaps a call from a bishop or on the virtual world with a click of a mouse or button—the plan for a virtual reunion gradually took shape. It eventually generated lots of enthusiasm and then was sealed with fiat when Bro Ringkoy offered to use his Zoom account and said, “Larga, Kanus-a man ni?” Everything fell into place. And so it was done.
Looking back, I came to realize—as with all realizations that become clear from hindsight—that the virtual reunion was probably just an instrument to gather us and dream together to embark on an important project: the Bursary. God led us to this, the Bursary. I am certain of that now. (by Juntabs)
