15/02/2025
My dearest Batch 2000,
A few months ago, I attended a recollection given by Fr. Gregory Boyle, SJ.
Fr. G, as he is affectionally called by his ministry, is the founder and director of Homeboy Industries and the former pastor of the Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles. Homeboy Industries is the largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program in the world.
He spoke about many things during the recollection, but what stuck to me was how he described the world and society today as having “Too much tribe, not enough village.”
Too much tribe, not enough village.
The current state of humanity aside, one can argue that high school was a lot like this. We had our own little tribes, and we’d be identified by the cliques we were associated with. Our barkadas had distinct characteristics relative to the other. And this was not necessarily bad, because that’s what high school was. It was an opportunity to forge one’s identity, a time to seek out those with whom you had most in common in hopes of finding friends, and to begin to figure out your potential.
In organizing the Silver Jubilee, our default was to think about those different barkadas back in high school. But over the course of the year preparing for the show I saw those lines, those cliques, those tribes – fade away. And it was not only me. I heard several of you say how wonderful how we have all come together as a Batch, where barkadas did not seem to matter as profoundly as they did before.
By the time we gathered at SEDA for the Appreciation Lunch, it was clear to me that we had built a village. A village that brought out the best in one another. May we continue to nurture this village as we grow older and wiser.
When I boarded the plane for Bacolod last February 3, I had only one metric for success – that we all remain friends after what could be the biggest test for the Batch, mounting a production with elements that (at least in my mind) had never been done before in SSA-B.
As the confetti rained down on February 8, marking the close of Cirque Kolasa, I could not help but tear up. We had gone above and beyond the metric. We have our village. Exhausted, sleep deprived, and possibly dehydrated – but this was a testament to the power of our community. We made this happen.
To end, and even one week after that core-memory-kind-of-night, I am reminded of a line from author David Whyte, “The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness.”
Ladies, thank you for showing and giving us your whole heart. The road to Silver was long, but we got to walk each other home. I am blessed and honored to have walked back home with each and every one of you.
I would not have it any other way.
Sincerely,
Lai Tuba-Principe
PS. In the photo below are late night scribbles on my bedside notepad from 1:05AM of July 15, 2024 when the earliest concept of “Cirque Kolasa” was born.
