I woke up one morning with my feed getting quickly populated by profile badges reminding me that, oh wow, it’s been 40 years since high school!

Forty years! I can hardly believe it. Where did time go?

Because I’m feeling a bit nostalgic, here are 40 things from 40 years ago when we were in high school!

1. Sharon Cuneta’s High School Life, with music and lyrics by George Canseco, came out in 1981, when we were in high school! I could so relate to the lyrics: There are times, may problema ka kung ang homework, left undone. Pray ka lang, huwag tawagin ka upang ‘di pagtawanan.
2. My uniform never fit quite right. I used to look at my classmates and wonder why theirs seemed better. Years later, I realized that it was the hormones. I should have ordered mine a size or two bigger to make room for when my body started “developing.”
3. Pen spinning was a thing. One seatmate was particularly good at it, and I would often be mesmerized by how dexterously she twirled her Bic ballpen.
4. The other week, I passed Senator Tito Sotto at the hallway walking towards the plenary hall, and this was the first thing that came to mind: “OMG! It’s Tito Escalera!”
5. We watched Iskul Bukol religiously. I always had an affinity for Miss Tapia; those boys were just so unruly! Fun fact: The sister of Richie D’ Horsie, God bless him, was a work colleague.
6. Okay, I may have watched Iskul Bukol but I preferred Student Canteen over Eat Bulaga! Eddie Ilarde and Bobby Ledesma were infinitely more refined than Tito, Vic, and Joey.
7. Coney Reyes, the mother of Mayor Vico, was once-upon-a-time a host in Student Canteen. She also had another show, Coney Reyes on Camera, which I never had the chance to see.
8. We bought our first Betamax player at the Cartimar Shopping Center in Pasay. We also got our first Betamax tapes there: Octopussy with Roger Moore as James Bond and On Golden Pond with Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, and Jane Fonda. I watched these two movies until I’ve memorized the lines!
9. On weekends, our family would go to Video Bug in BF to rent tapes and we’ll just veg on the couch, eating chips. I remember being horrified by V, a series where reptilian aliens invade Earth.
10. I was the class secretary with the most absences. We’d be up so late watching movies that I wouldn’t be able to get ready in time for the school bus service the next morning. Mom would just say: “Okay lang ‘yan, anak. Hindi ka naman nag-PhD.” Yipee!
11. Ferdinand Marcos was president from 1965 to 1986. I grew up thinking that this was totally natural. He was president from before I was born, for all my years in high school, and until my first year in college.
12. I once went to a soiree but I was such a socially-awkward teenager. I wanted to go home right away.
13. I had a perm for the prom. What was I thinking?
14. MTV debuted on August 1, 1981 with Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. The videos were 3 to 5 minutes long, and the Boomers quickly said us Gen Xers had such short attention spans. Gen Zs supposedly have attention spans eight seconds long, or should we say, short?
15. MTV is scheduled to shut down on December 31, 2025.  
16. I listened to the local versions of Casey Kasem’s American Top 40, hoping they’d play my favorite songs so I can record them on tape.
17. It is absolutely the worst when the recorder eats your cassette, making a mess of your music. You try fixing it with a pen and packing tape, but it’s not the same.
18. I once received a mixtape from a lovely boy. It was the sweetest!
19. Love letters are the best! Imagine the time and effort it took to write down your feelings—on paper!  
20. I was once a muse for a basketball team. I had to participate in a parade where we walked around the village, and I wore these awful-fitting sandals. I got blisters afterwards! Ugh!
21. Almost two hundred workers were buried when the scaffolding at the Manila Film Center collapsed. I only knew about it from adults, talking in whispers.  
22. “Kaya ikaw John, magsumikap ka!” “Matutina, abonohan mo muna.” John en Marsha was another not-to-be missed sitcom. I miss Dolphy!
23. I never solved the Rubik’s Cube. I didn’t have the patience.
24. I discovered Stephen King and Robert Ludlum around this time. I would do nothing but read for days come summertime, switching between horror and spy thriller. It was heaven.
25. I thought the Allison “makeover” in The Breakfast Club was a total failure. She already looked cool.
26. We had to go all the way to Greenhills, from Alabang, to buy a pair of espadrilles.
27. I can still sing the theme song of Voltes V, even though I do not know what the lyrics mean.
28. I loved Daimos, too. I named my eldest after the protagonist’s love interest, Erika. She had wings.
29. We studied and studied and studied for the NCEE (National College Entrance Examination). It induced panic attacks for generations of students. It was abolished in 1994.
30. In Home Economics, I learned how to make tomato jam. Mine did not taste pretty. We also had a sewing class where we made nightgowns. The fabric had Hello Kitty prints. Mine did not look good. I guess my mommy powers did not kick in until I had kids.
31. I once attended CAT (Citizen’s Army Training) with a huge hangover, but managed to accomplish the drills perfectly. I will never know why.
32. The reason for the hangover was a sleepover where we drank vodka, and I ended up puking half the stuff I ate on the toilet. Fun times!
33. As many as six or seven of us tiny, teeny teens could fit in one vehicle just to bust out of school.
34. It was around this time that such Filipino films as Kisapmata, Batch ’81, Moral, Himala, Bona, and Relasyon were shown, but I wouldn’t get to see them until I was older.
35. The one movie that I did see was Bagets, of course! I once bumped into Raymond Lauchengo at an art fair, but forgot to ask for a selfie. Oh, and Sharon Cuneta had this string of pa-cutesy teeny-bopper movies like Dear Heart and P.S. I Love You.
36. P.S. I Love You is one of the popular titles of Sweet Dreams, young adult paperbacks written for teenaged girls. If I remember right, the lead guy here is Paul and he dies.  
37. The yellow confetti rallies were happening at this time. A very passionate classmate would give us updates.
38. Yes, I followed Jane Fonda’s Workout tapes. In hindsight, I don’t know why because I did not have an inch of fat in my teenage years.
39. Why, oh why, was there such a thing as acid-washed jeans?
40. Yes, I kept diaries, pink-colored ones, with keys. Perhaps I’ll read them one day.

I thought I’d have a hard time thinking of 40 things that went down 40 years ago. But I find that I have only scratched the surface as my mind is still revved up with memories. How about you? What were you up to 40 years ago?