There Now is a Paris Hilton Shop at Rob Manila

My friend decided to finally have her clearance finished, her diploma claimed, and her transcript ordered this afternoon. She asked if I could accompany her and since I was Manila-bound in the morning for a job interview (again), I said I could. So we met up and went to our once second-home (this is so cheesy).

If you wanted to make sure life moves on, revisit the places you had not been in for quite a long time. That's what I realized earlier. Because yes, no matter how stuck I feel, life does moves on for the world at large. The university now has a new set of students, the richer ones who have enough financial wellness to afford the increased tuition fee. I felt weird seeing all those apparently newbies and not being around to watch them absorb the shock of going to a state university.

It's been almost a year. And I've went through a first job and a first recognition and a first set of failed applications. It's been almost a year and while all those students watched a museum being erected in what we've always considered as a lost land before, my life is taking a roller coaster ride of its own. It's been almost a year and while the graduating students are up to their necks trying to make their thesis puzzles piece together, I'm being badgered by my parents to get up from my always-sitting position and get a life.

Old stuffs are still around though, like the street vendors in front of the public hospital opposite our campus. It was so easy to predict that should someone shout a warning about authorities that time, scampering and scurrying to hide would soon follow. It still paid to be street smart unless you'd rather a felon get hold of your phone or wallet.

We talked about all these as we meandered through the streets we used to see everyday. But we know the time to move on had long since passed and what we were merely expressing were fondness over those memories.

But if there was one thing that totally and definitely struck as hard was the mall that we treated like our second school and third home. It now looked so chic, with the new color scheme of tiles, and entirely fresh, as if newly-built. There are now shops we could only dream of before. Like a Paris Hilton shop and XOXO. Old stores are either relocated or shut down.

The feeling was a mixture of awe (yeah, it felt stupid squealing "Wow!" at the new shops--like we were there for the first time) and fondness and nostalgia. It was like going through your childhood house long after you've moved out--you know your way around but the walls and the lives it shelters are already different.

Life moves on. People change. And establishments are renovated. If tomorrow those places are different again, I wouldn't be surprised.

But it was nice to go back even for a while. Like the memories were never gone.