Small memory clippings during college

October 8, 2009

While I was watching the evening news last night, I was surprised to receive a text message from Irwin “Borts” Fortuno, who is a member of Ateneo De Naga high school class 1979. He told me that our batch mate, Leoncio “Butch” Badiong Jr. is back in Naga after staying in the Federal States of Micronesia for about two years. I do not know if Butch is just visiting Naga or has moved back to the Philippines.

There were two Badiongs in our batch: Julio Badiong and Butch Badiong. Back in high school, I noticed that both Badiongs were sociable but Julio is the hyperactive one while Butch is more reserved.

Butch became my class mate in College in Ateneo De Naga during the summer of 1982 or 1983. I believe Butch was still an active student of University of the Philippines Los Banos when he enrolled for summer classes in ADENU. The subject whom Butch and I became classmates was called “The Rizal Course”. Our teacher then was Mr. Ireneo Llana.

Butch was a very laid back guy. Whenever he is waiting for his next class, he would hang out at the Pillars along with the other regular “tambay boys” checking out the beautiful coeds arriving from the main gate. Butch never came across as a serious student. But when Mr. Llana handed out the final grades in our class, Butch came on top of the class!

Butch told me that student life in U.P. Los Banos is very hectic and he never had the luxury of hanging out with his buddies after the last class of the day. At the end of the day, he would spend hours studying his lessons just to survive academically in U.P. Garo magaratak daa ang payo niya sa ka-aadal.

Being an amateur historian, I enjoyed studying the life of Dr. Jose Rizal. I felt pressured though to get a good grade during that class because I was seated next to Nancy Seechung whose parents are good friends of my folks. The Seechung family owned the BenMar Marketing store near the supermarket. Nancy graduated high school at Saint Joseph School back in 1980. After high school, Nancy went to study at the College of Holy Spirit in Manila. Like Butch, Nancy also decided to take up a few classes in Ateneo while spending her summer vacation in Naga.

I remember that Nancy had a preference when it comes to her choice of chairs. She always wants to sit on a chair that has a wide table arm (Writing platform). Nancy is a left hander and so she had some difficulty writing on a chair designed with a right-hander table arm. Fortunately, there were a few chairs that had a wide table arm to accommodate the wide balance sheets that accounting students always work on. It became my unofficial duty to ensure that Nancy gets her favored chair every time we attended Mr. Llana’s class.

During the class of Mr. Llana, I did not only learn about the life of the national hero of the Philippines. I also got to know two batch mates who possessed unassuming characters and always maintained simple conversations with everybody.