‘is it something that happens as we grow older or do we have problems because as older people, we tend to overanalyze things?’

jeneil asked as silence, for once, descended on our group that night.

her question kept us quiet for a little longer — because it got us thinking: as older people, are we messed up because we have aged considerably? or are we the very reasons why we live directionless lives as of the moment, exactly eight years after high school graduation?

of course, we were the perfect mix of people to answer that question — we had in our group a registered nurse who did not know what to do with her career path what with the retrogression in the US and all, we had someone who just broke off her engagement with her erstwhile fiance, still, there was one who did not know what his life meant as of the moment and where it was leading to, and then there was me, a college junkie who just finished formal schooling after over eight years (thank god it was only seven years and a sem, yehey).

we fell silent because we tried to look for a sensible answer to her sensible question.

then edon quipped: ‘are we really miserable?’

everyone erupted in laughter — not because the answer was an obvious no, but because we all knew that in our own unguarded moments together, especially with the presence of spirits around, we crumbled in the presence of each other — admitting human frailty in the company of friends who did not judge nor took pity because they themselves felt and understood how it was to be broken.

‘how could it have come to this?’

all of us looked in different directions — but there was a subdued concession among all that what kept us together, and what will keep us together in the years to come was the comfort of our friendship and the future rounds of tagay in between heartfelt laughters and sporadic emotional outbursts.

we had become the friday night drinking club — and we knew, in that solitary moment of silence and bliss, that we will be each other’s lifesavers in the days, and drinking nights, to come.