While I’ve been slaving away at school, my other batchmates and classmates from high school have taken divergent career paths. One is a local media personality and host, one works for a bigtime local film production company, one is a freelance photographer, some work in call centers, and a number have emigrated to first-world countries in search of a better life. Some of them I’ve completely lost track of, but most of them I can still talk to on Yahoo! Messenger or over cellphone text messages. Periodically we who are still living in the Philippines have parties where we talk about weight lost and gained (this is targeted specifically at the girls!), discuss what we’re currently up to, and catch up on news about the ones who couldn’t make the gathering.

Recently at one of these gatherings, I found out that one of my friends is getting married. (Actually, since it’s the 13th of March, she’s already married.) We all duly sent our greetings and wishes her way, but for me it was a major shock. “Has it been that long?” I found myself thinking that night.

Yes, it has. In a year it’ll be ten years since I graduated from high school. Hopefully I will have successfully defended my thesis, earned my master’s degree, found a job and a livelihood, and have made something of myself. I seriously haven’t known a different kind of life and it’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for me.

Matrimony, though… The subject was seriously broached by Aunt T two weeks ago and I’ve been trying to dodge it ever since. I suppose a woman in her early to mid-twenties is considered marriageable in this society. I would hate to settle at this age, though; I feel as if I haven’t done anything yet, and I know that there’s more to life than setting up house and bearing children.

I keep thinking that I’ve been waiting for my life to start, not realizing that it’s already happening around me. This is my life right now: thesis, searching for a God-given purpose and goal, finding myself. I suppose I’ve been living a prolonged childhood and adolescence regardless of my academic work, and I feel like I haven’t come into my own yet. I’m going to have to make things happen, make the transition from professional student to — I haven’t even seriously considered what I’ll be doing after this.

Tags: Graduation, University