Friends + Aleyn behind the lens

Here are a couple of behind-the-scene photos from Aleyn‘s shoot with Irene last January. The photos turned out to be exquisite! Please view the photos here. Irene is leaving for another country by the end of February so we’re all getting together once a week before her flight. It’s like a mini-countdown to separation.

When you’re young, together with your friends, you sometimes envision being together until you get old, though you know in your heart that in due time, you will have to see less of each other. I think that we’ve reached a point in our lives where we have our own dreams to fulfill and some of us have to take braver and farther leaps to reach them.

One of the things that I will always be grateful for is years and years of good friendship. I know that in some cases people drift apart geographically or maybe after a year things just don’t work out between two people. Ever since I was young, longevity and loyalty are things that I take to heart. I never knew I found them valuable until I noticed that my then high school best friend had been my best friend for over 10 years already. But because I hated her boyfriend so much, I started avoiding her. It’s funny how one small thing can topple an entire decade of friendship. When you get older, it could be about anything, money, business, fame… sometimes things that sound pettier than what kids used to fight over.

In my high school, students get shuffled once they reach freshman year and none of my primary school friends ended up in the same class as me. I was everybody’s and nobody’s friend. I was extremely average with a couple of problems that people didn’t like to deal with. I never got into fights, I never bullied and I was never bullied, at least by students. If ever I was laughed at, I never knew about it. My grades were the 11th lowest in my batch. I threw tantrums, I leave the class with an entire test paper unanswered and I get sent to the guidance office for not studying at all.

Irene became my classmate on my freshman year of high school. We only became close after some time. We had this fight where I stuck glue to her hair. We’re trying to recall what it was about and none of us could remember. Though I know it has a lot to do about me being arrogant and selfish.

I can’t remember how Irene became my closest friend though there was 1 memory that’s still vivid up to this day. In high school, I was part of a speech contest that was down to the last 3 contestants. I was one of the last 3. It’s 15 minutes before the program and for the 1st time, I had to speak in front of more than a thousand in broad daylight. I told Irene that I was nervous so she told me to go to the restroom with her. We cut homeroom class, she told me to recite the speech and after I was done she said that I’ll be fine and there’s nothing to worry about. The program ran its course and I ended up as the winner. That was 9 years ago. Today I remember not a single line from that speech but I gained a fond memory and a friend.

Back then, Irene was part of another set of friends. I was just her regular classmate-friend. There was this subject in which we were asked about our future plans. Irene was called and she said something like, my friends and I will build a castle, form a band and we’ll live there. When you’re 16, it sounds a little childish and it’s not what society wants to hear. Most of the people in class, including the teacher laughed. The teacher even probed her with more questions on how she’ll fulfill that. (Hence my disdain for high school and grownups.) Some people don’t even have the privilege to dream with their friends. It’s not bad to take your dreams with you, no matter how implausible they are, because as you grow, they will translate to something good and real.

My friends and I make plans 1 or 2 years down the road. We tell each other that we’ll do that thing no matter what the cost. You’ll never know if it’ll happen or not but you’ll always look back to the memory and say

Remember when we wanted to…

That’s something precious.

I met Bea in college. When you talk to her it’s like she lays all the pieces on the table and tells you how you can approach things. Bea is a tiny person but she has the wildest spirit.

I rarely get to see Bea because she went back to the province but we still hang out whenever the chance.

There’s Genevieve whom I’ve known since I was a child and Aleyn, whom I met online around 2 years ago. I find it beyond amazing that get to hang out with her from time to time. She’s one of the people that I hold dearly.

Armed with an analog SLR, you think that there might be some magic formula, special film or apparatus added to Aleyn‘s camera but in reality, It’s just plain honest-to-goodness photography where she waits for the perfect light and lets her model act in the most natural state as possible.

In a magazine interview there’s a small Q&A portion where I was asked “what can’t you live without?” And I said my family and friends.

We all hung out at the Appraisery after. It’s a small café along Annapolis Street with good sandwiches and shakes. They sell vintage items regularly and hold board game nights once a week.

As one singular being, you can do things yourself, you can work hard on your own to attain your goals while keeping a strictly professional and impersonal relationship with everyone you meet. You can tell yourself, I can do this, I won’t screw this up, I will be successful. No matter how optimistic you set yourself to, there is still that tinge of doubt and fear that can take over your any unguarded moment. It probably took too long for me to realize that I don’t have my friends around because I want someone to help me solve my problems or because I want to have better experiences in life or because I don’t want to be alone. We have friends because these words become more believable when you hear it from another person close to you:

It’s going to be alright.

As one person who holds fears and insecurities to another, those words are good enough to stitch together places where fear and insecurity creep in. It’s powerful enough to help you cope with loss and it’s powerful enough to garner the courage to claim victory. Having a good friend is the greatest luck anyone could have.