First day high.*

MTV defines nostalgia as painful longing for the past. What pain is, I don't know. What longing for the past is, I have memorised already.

My first day of the semester was twice interrupted by a need to leave UP. I had to leave home early and spend my lunch break on a queue that took hours to move. What time I had left, I spent in classrooms. What little time I had not in classrooms, I spent wandering, trying to shake off sem break hangover.

Every other moment of the day, Mayonnaise would sing at the back of my head. "Wala rin kasi akong makausap at kasama." CASAA wasn't as full as it normally was. Every unfamiliar face failed to make me feel alien, unlike a year ago. But seeing a friend was still such a happy moment. Seeing Math friends made my day. Each of them were ecstatic about Sir Pasia being their prof again. My Math soulmates were soulmates no more. I was tempted to give my lunch break away. But classes from 11:00 to 4:00 didn't sound like it would allow me to stay sane.

Kenneth's canteen was foodless at 2:00 so I fed myself Pillows for lunch. Yes, my reluctance to walk usually beats my hunger. Or blame should be on euphoria. A few familiar faces had the same effect as the cold coffe I had in the morning. Vhunny and Paul and Therese, yey. But all get-happy people I saw, I could only count with my two hands. Good thing Tuesday has two Math classes.

School was not entirely alien. When my Math 65 prof mentioned gradient I wasn't as lost as when I was asked to graph the cotangent function first day of last year's second sem. Maybe because sem break wasn't as long as it should be. I don't remember how a month-long off from school got squeezed into a couple of weeks. But what's before the break, I surely miss.

*Gasgas na gasgas na gasgas na.