tropapeeps

i always thought that one can never have a lot of real friends. real friends, yes. but not a lot. a few, those who you grew up with, went to school with and worked with, will stay on as one of your lifelong friends. these are the individuals who you share deep relationships with and a special bond glues you together as one tight-knit soul-based group. these special persons are rare, akin to the rare gems and earth materials of the world, primarily because one needs to hit the right combination of timing (when to dig), tools (what to use) and aims (why and what to do). but when all elements come together and one lands a rich oar or a minefield and you meet these real friends in your life, you are in for the ride of your life and one can consider him/herself lucky.

but like i’ve said, these special persons, the real soulmates one can ever have, can never be that ‘many’. one to five maybe, can be a little more than that but almost always less than 10, based on different stages of your life. they may be some of your childhood playmates, classmates during elementary and high schools, batchmates and classmates during your university years and coworkers or those that you’ve met when you were already journeying in the world of withholding taxes. such was also the case with me. i have had a few real friends from the different stages of my life. a few from my younger years, a few from high school, a few from my UP days, a few from my years of working.

such was my belief that i was pretty much convinced that these true friends that i have now will ‘only’ be my lifelong friends… that i won’t be meeting a new set of individuals anymore, with whom i’m going to spend a lot of time with and actually share emotional bond with. i was pretty certain about it. and i’m ok with it. i was given some of the most intelligent, witty, fun-to-be-with friends, with whom i share the same wavelength. they do not judge me, rather they accept me for who i am. i do not get to see most of them very often due to busy schedules and other priorities. but when i see them after a long while, it’s as if we just had coffee the other day!

but God truly works in mysterious ways. He lets you be in a certain situation, unfolds His divine plans and opens up a can of goodies along the way. in my case, i didn’t have any plans of dropping by greenbelt chapel on that tuesday night in august 1 last year. but He swept my feet and drove these lower limbs to usher me to go inside the chapel. little did i know that this ‘trip’ to sto. nino de paz chapel will lead me to a “can of goodies”, goodies in this case are new friends! i let Him drive this new stage in my life, but of course, it did not happen in one big swoop. it was a process that i had to go through. i attended and finished the life in spirit (LSS) seminar, went through the growth in spirit seminar (GSS) and christian formation series. and in this journey of renewal, through the emmanuel catholic community, God led me to the dedicated women and men of the community, faithful servants, as well as the rest of my ‘batchmates’ in LSS and GSS 40. most especially, this journey led me to a new set of lifelong friends… the tropapeeps! a new set of brothers and sisters, all fun-to-be-with, smart, funny, down-to-earth, prayerful, unique and what’s more amazing, we are a group of pretty diverse individuals. we’re not of the same age bracket, we did not come from the same school and have different backgrounds in life… yet we clicked and bonded through prayer, Eucharistic celebration, teachings, as well as the common love for food, travel, fun and laughter! they came into my life at a very opportune moment… when i was rediscovering how to be a child of God once again. and this journey became an altogether fun and exciting one.

i’ve only met the LSS 40 and the tropapeeps in august last year but in that short span of time, i’ve already had quite a number of memorable trips with them. these are on top of our weekly (sometimes twice a week) dinnerchats (most of the time till the wee hours of the morning over mcdonald’s coffee and fries). 

• we shared a commute-filled trip to hulugan falls, in luisiana, laguna in november. bus to sta. cruz, laguna; spent the night at a ‘PHP 10k-worth’ hotel in pagsawitan area; took the jeepney going to lucban; started the trek to hulugan falls (more on this in other entries) and discovered two other falls in the area. that was such a fun trip!
• we also did videoke during christmas break.
• in late february, i joined my brothers and sisters from GSS 40 to trek the not-so-easy, definitely not a leisure trek, mt. tapulao in palauig, zambales. this was undeniably not a day-hike, but a ‘die-hike’ (will write about this in separate entry)!
• we also spent an overnight via airbnb in forbestown in one of the weekends in march. we cooked, bantered, dipped in the pool, played uno to our heart’s delight, had massage, prepped brunch, ate some more, had lots of laughter and good-natured bickering, a super fun weekend.
• during maundy thursday and good friday, we did visita iglesia and visited 8 churches in laguna (pakil, paete, kalayaan, lumban, pagsanjan, magdalena, liliw and nagcarlan).
•  just this early april, we went to pampanga for some kapampangan cuisine-filled trip and celebrated ‘kekekeka keka kekekeka keka’ for bro. we visited san fernando city, angeles city (remember ‘hiwa at kurtina’?!) and clark, as well as the towns of guagua, bacolor and mexico.
• we even had an impromptu late night dinner at madam’s place since we were all insistent on ‘eating out’!
• and during this year’s labor day, we ventured in our very first cinema trip as a group – thanos and the rest of the infinity stones and the avengers, where ‘two’ actually slept through the entire 2-hour duration of the film!        

have i also mentioned that we have our weekly ‘pamorningan’ sessions around makati?! yes, these are our colorful chats and banter about many things including the following:

• life in general and the necessary toilings, plus the trials and how to go about it
•  blossoming lovelife and how we enjoy planning upcoming ‘weddings’ and cataloguing their relationship milestones
• about romantic lovelife and the absence of it for some and the ‘abundance’ of past lovelives for others
• on single blessedness and the apolitical choice one has made around it
•  heartaches and disappointments
• politics, its divisiveness and the debates that come along with it
• work and career and the everyday struggles of employees like us
• the issues on our respective families
• money matters of course, as well as the lending of money that leads to ‘laundering’
• ‘interesting’ individuals and how these people (like a sister, who’s in dire need of help on mental health, who berated us publicly in mcdonald’s) either put a damp on one’s mood and drive us to pray more
• dealing on emotions and how we should have more self-control
• realizations and being more self-aware
• showbiz and its trappings
• jokes, jokes and whole lot of laughtrip subjects
• food and our favorites, plus where to eat
• travels, itineraries, bookings and where to go next
• and most of all, on God and His love and faithfulness and how to recall, recover and renew as children of God. 

great and all great… big thanks to mcdonald’s greenbelt (where we sometimes bring our own food, pancit or cold cuts + pandesal, and only buy mcdo coffee or other drinks!!), coffee bean and tea leaf, mary grace, sinangag express, café breton, ayala triangle and other familiar joints in makati for giving us a space where to freely talk and actually stay for more than five hours or so, hahaha! and just last saturday, we had a marathon in BGC – a four-establishment and 10-hour tour that started with just hunting for a customized shirt (we got it from bench BHS branch). we had dinner in bonchon, transferred to starbucks for coffee, walked around to look for a place where we can ‘while’ away a sister’s disenchantment about a ‘special’ someone, decided to go to mercato and ended up in mcdonald’s! whew!   

in a short span of time, we’ve shared a lot with one another. we’ve had quite a number of great shared memories and i look forward to making some new ones. i also look forward to the rest of weekly praise and worship with these newfound friends, other church-related activities, as well as our in-town, domestic and international trips in the offing. what’s even better is each one of us prays for one another (especially for our personal and family-related petitions), we push and help each other towards our greater path to God and we look out for each other in this journey while also balancing it out with fun times and bonding activities.

“Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us. Let's not be afraid to receive each day's surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy. It will open a new place in our hearts, a place where we can welcome new friends and celebrate more fully our shared humanity.” – Henri Nouwen

now, i rest my case. God really works in mysterious ways and He gives us life’s delightful surprises in many forms. meeting and bonding with new lifelong friends, brothers and sisters, is one of these countless blessings. i’m convinced that one will meet new friends, real friends, at any point in life, especially when we let God “take the wheel” and we let Him in our lives. while one may have some lifelong friends already, there will always be room for new ones… all of whom will make one’s life a richer one. salamat po, Lord, for the gift of friendship.

let’s biyahe na ulit, tropapeeps and LSS 40!