"Ad Libitum" is the name that my high school friends and I have given ourselves during our senior year. It means "at one's pleasure" in Latin. So how non-conformist our we to have named our barkada (it means "close group of friends" in Filipino) in freakin' Latin?
Almost six years after graduating from high school and of the eight of us, we have not been able to have a complete dinner with every one present and accounted for. To our credit, we certainly did try many, many, many times. At least there would be four of us, and at the most was seven last 2009.
For many weeks since knowing of my impending departure to the US, I have been obsessed with the idea of having a complete get-together. No pressure for sleep-overs, just a nice dinner with all of us in attendance. I even went as far as creating an event for the thing.
We had decided to eat at a restaurant called Nolita. Coincidentally, it was a New York-styled restaurant with pizza as the main dish. The concept was taken from Nolita, an actual place in New York. It stands for North of Little Italy, of which we have nothing of locally.
To my sheer disappointment, someone cancelled on the day itself and I was upset. I tried not to let it bother me.
Long story short, just when we were about to dig into our food, they surprised me. I was not expecting anything special--in fact, the dinner wasn't even for me. I just wanted to meet up with everyone. Never the less, these special people surprised me with, drumroll please, a brand new Sony Digital Camera!
Gosh, I guess they know how frustrated and vocal had been about wanting to get a new camera. I guess I just didn't realize about how vocal. I was so happy and surprised that I ended up crying on the spot! You see, I'm not very easily surprised because I'm normally the one arranging and concocting them. No to brag, but I'm so good at organizing surprises that I was actually legit scared that my future fiancé would not be able to come up with a good proposal because I'd figure it out right away. About an hour after my friends' surprise, I made a note to remind my future super serious boyfriend that if he ever wanted to propose, to ask them for some tips. HAHA
More than anything, I just couldn't believe how lucky I was to have these great friends. I made a conscious effort not to play the "BUT I'M LEAVING" card while organizing the dinner because I really didn't want to make such a big deal out of it. But going so far as to organize this all (and deceive me!) was just such a good, eye-opening surprise!
I think my tears summed up all the other emotions that I can never be able to put into words. It wasn't the camera (though that was VERY appreciated, seriously), but just *sigh* ALL THE FEELS.
Thank you, guys.
Mishie
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