Pardon the immodesty but I am indeed proud to have gone to one of Manila's most prestigious private universities, the Ateneo de Manila. Ever since I was a freshman in high school, I already told my mom I wanted to study there.

There is no denying I should have majored in European Languages, Spanish, or Foreign Service for my undergraduate. It was truly silly of me to not have paid attention to what my high school counselors mentioned were more in line with my interests at the time. All I could think of was going to Ateneo and not much more even if the courses I was going to be good at were not offered there yet.

To cut a long story short, I did get accepted to my favorite school but I majored in Business, something I was truly very mediocre at. Good thing Spanish was a compulsory subject and boy did I excel in it BIG time.

In fact, every time I connect with classmates from college, everyone asks how my Spanish is now and inquires if I am still fluent at it.

Speaking of classmates, I have been fortunate to still be in contact with a number of them. Although our school is on the other side of the world, a lot of us made our way to the US, to both coasts and some in between.

Of all my classmates, the ones who live in the San Francisco Bay Area are of course the ones I see more often although I have met up with others in different parts of the world.

Here is a compilation of pictures from those gatherings.