Hark children of the greaaaat St. Paul!!

Today, January 25, we celebrate the feast of the conversion of St. Paul the Apostle. Being both a Paulinian and Biguenyo, this has always been really big a day for me, growing up. (Recap: Alumni of St. Paul's are Paulinians; Patron saint of Vigan is St. Paul) So here I am, very busy with work deadlines, but squeezing in 10 minutes of my precious time to dedicate a blog post entirely to St. Paul (secretly trying to win ganda points so he'll help me finish my deliverables on time. Aha!).

So what's cookin' in Vigan right now? A week-long fiesta celebration pegged VIVA VIGAN which showcases a longganisa-themed parade, among others. If you must know, Vigan has the most delicious longganisa (Mexican salami to the culturati) in all of the 7,107 Philippine islands. So if you haven't tasted it yet, boo you to the nth power!!

In St. Paul's, we, as with the other schools in the city, joined in the festivities. Of course, I am sharing my experience from 8 years back when I was a H.S. Senior. My girl pals and I were members of the marching band (which our school called the Drum and Lyre), hence, we were front-runners in the city-wide parade (to be differentiated from the aforementioned longganisa parade) which is the fiesta opener. In short, sikat kami. Or feeling sikat. Whatever. Haha! I was co-majorette with my other 2 friends (Janina and Avon), while the rest of my talented friends were minorettes (Cha, Len, Erika) or with the instruments (Krystel, Nica and Kaye). The Drum and Lyre wasn’t really what you would call exceptional performers (wala kaming sinabi as compared to the public schools in terms of performance) but I would like to believe that our band stood out from the rest because of our impeccable poise and pride, despite the aching feet!! And we definitely had lots of fun! I sure hope we never seriously embarrassed our moderator. Oh well. :) 

To cut my story short, some of the best memories I've had of my childhood were during my formative years in St. Paul which is why this day will always serve as a reminder of the essential values I have learned from my teachers, friends and classmates. Life was really less complicated then. Ahhh... nostalgic!

And so the Paulinian hymn goes:

Sweet are the days of childhood 

when friends we love and care 

Those golden links of childhood 

whose sympathy we share 

Do stay and while the hours away 

With us in work and play 

And when we leave our dear old school 

These mem'ries we'll recall 

These mem'ries we'll recall 

:)

Snippets from highschool:

First year highschool at Jen's house (center) on her birthday. Why isn't Barbie in uniform? And this was supposed to be a serious shot! Ampaaang!!! :)

Sophomores with an attitude! Studio pics were really big then. :D

I think it was Krystel (lower left-most) who collated this. On our senior year! 

At Janina's for dinner with the Streetboys. They were still popular back then and they were filming a movie in Vigan. We look so....mmm....young nalang. haha :))