A Happy Ending

"If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story." -Orson Wells (quoted by Neal Caffrey)

I walked away from OrSem last year with tears in my eyes, but a smile on my face, knowing that I gave everything that I could have given to the first and last groups of freshmen I handled. Everytime that I stepped on covered courts cement, I know that everything changes, it means business, but fun business. Being a TNT is unlike anything I could have ever imagined doing. I loved the work and I worked because I loved it.

I remember my humble beginnings, I remember Macky del Rosario writing my name on the sign-up sheet. That solidified my claim to be TNT. I was having second thoughts, but when I saw my name written on the sheet, I knew that I was going to stick with it. I don't remember much of anything after that, but I remember certain bits of memories from all my TNT experiences.

I was TNT for two years. I handled two blocks, took care of 44 freshmen (5 of whom became TNT too). 5 kids. Four from my newbie year (Marc, Rich, JO and Earon) and one from my senior year (Hanna). But the story doesn't end with handling these two blocks. As happy an ending that was, it still is incomplete.

I've decided to stop the story when I see how these kids will grow up. And after a couple of years, they already have, and they have so much more to grow. However, seeing that these five have grown into a special family, way better than they can ever imagine, has created a better ending to my story.

Sige na, tawagin na akong "Can't Let Go." But I can't let go for a reason. If you had a kid, would you stop watching her/him grow once s/he can stand on her/his own. NO.

I have yet to see these five people grow in to the people they want to be. And my happy ending has yet to come, not until the last of O4 and U1 leave the Alma Mater I've called home for sixteen years. I'm happy as it is, but I know for a fact that the ending will be so much better a few chapters from now.

And I've decided the perfect moment where to end this story: in 2017, at the graduation of O4 and U1. Where their stories have to take sharp turns into a page called reality.