Jude AgbayaniI am a child of the 80’s. Afternoons after school were spent in the streets playing “patintero”, “agawan base” or “taguan”. In high school, one’s cassette tape collection wouldn’t be complete without the albums of Janet Jackson, Swing out Sisters, Michael Jackson, Depeche Mode and the like.
A teen-aged girl was considered fashionable if she sported “baston” jeans paired with a colorful oversized shirt and either a black or whilte Reebok rubber shoes. One wouldn’t dare to leave home without that towering bangs frozen in time by the purple variant of the Aquanet spray net.
If you need to talk to a friend, you call them on the telephone. We spent time with each other talking at home face to face. Not all had telephones back then, so we have to write letters to each other in order to communicate. We share our experiences to our loved ones in a very intimate way.
Our communities then were safer as parents were confident to send their kids out to play. It’s not that the 80’s was crime-free but heinous crimes were unheard of. At 11 years old, I would go to school on my own on a jeepney. We were free to walk any time of the day without fear of being harassed or being mugged.
Traffic flow never made it to the news. Highways were not congested and traveling was not too stressful. Very few cars filled the streets as cars were primarily used for transport only.
Twenty five years later, it’s as if we live in a different world.
Seldom do we see kids move around the neighborhood instead we find them confined in their homes with hands and eyes glued to their gadgets. Their world would crumble if their punishment was a day without gadgets.
Cassette tapes are already obsolete. Kids these days don’t even know what these “contraptions” were haha! Now, favorite songs can be downloaded and listened to anywhere you want. You don’t need to carry with a Sony Walkman or Discman, you just need your smartphone or mp3 player plus ear plugs and you’re all set.
Shopping can be troublesome these days because of the hassle of going to the mall to find the item you like. We have gone a long way since the 80’s, now one can do their shopping online. We have gone a long way since the 80’s and now one can do their shopping through sites like Zalora Philippines. Sites like these make shopping so much easier as one can simply search, click, buy and wait for the orders delivered at your doorsteps. Remember your favorite pair of sneakers back in high school such as Reebok? Well, Zalora Philippines have a good variety of Reebok shoes for you to choose from.
Our postal offices are slowly dying because of the advent of email, chat, online messengers and texting. Now, it’s very convenient to talk a friend who lives 5000 miles from you. In fact, one can even see them up close via video chat like Skype and Facetime.
As a parent, I am cautious whenever our kids go out to play. There can’t play far from the house or someone has to stay and watch them. As news bombard us with so much crime in the streets, one has to be very vigilant and protect themselves and their families from unscrupulous people. It’s not as safe these days as it was back then.
Why am I being nostalgic all of a sudden? It’s because a bunch of dedicated high school friends of mine have been going nuts for the past one and half years planning and organizing our 25th year high school reunion. Our batch will be the silver jubilarians of our alma mater in January 2015. This means, we will be hosting the entire night as hundreds of fellow Paulinians will be attending this exciting night. Pressured? Of course, we are!
As member of the organizing committee, we would like to invite our fellow Paulinians, friends and family to be part of Top Hits Silver Redvival Alumni Homecoming and support our upcoming fund-raising projects for our alumni homecoming. Check out our block screening project for the blockbuster movie, Hunger Games Mockingjay 1. Check out details here.
Our past is there to remind us of how uncomplicated our lives were back then. It’s okay to reminisce and look back to the past once in a while. Our past reminds us of our victories and failures. Both give us a lesson that should not remain in the past but be seen in the decisions we make in the future.
Time passes by so quickly. So instead of being resentful and harboring unforgiveness in our hearts, let’s all intentionally forgive and move on. It’s not easy, I know. But that’s for another blog post 🙂
Our past does not define who we are, God does. The lessons, heartaches and mistakes we went through were all allowed by God to teach us, to prune and make us a better version of ourselves.
18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19
Did you grow up in the 80’s like me? What was your favorite memory of that glorious era?
