it's always a girl thing

We met and bonded in college. Impressionable young ladies with an attitude to boot. We were never with a lack of heart and gumption, and so now it would be best if I do it alphabetically.

The Ketchupp Sisters are Rachel Carbonilla, Chona Carmencita Dancel-Panes, Cecile delos Reyes, Ma. Carmina "Chola" Elayda-Bautista, Mary Joy Gundran (c'mon Chichi send me her married name please!), Jennifer Liu-Wu, Ma. Noche Miro-Vicente, Meloriza "Melon" Porras-Candelaria, Heidi Grace Pulido-Mendoza, Grace Henidina Torres-Belisario. And too, there is Ma. Conchitina Luces.

During those four years in college, we never went out to watch movies late into the night, but we chose the university library as our Mecca and the place to hang out. We did not have the pleasure of being proper debutantes and exchanging dancing partners, but we swapped answers in our homeworks. We were not a cluster of roses which lured a bevy of bees, but we were confident that we were marigolds under the sun.

As a group, we made a pact and considered ourselves as sisters. We were always ready for the other. Like a modern, enlarged, noisy female musketeer gathering. We considered ourselves indestructible then. We laughed together at the same boys in school. We forged our clique amidst burgers and catsup. Some inspiration.

Never to a fault, each one of us were always complementing the others. We never competed. At least not openly. To make everybody happy, we knew who we were: one was beautiful, the others pretty, dazzling, gorgeous, attractive, stunning, lovely, exquisite, charming and divine. Why alternately, we could be any of that any day.

We even had a Ketchupp Gazette. We planned it to become an international success beyond the four walls of our classroom. But all we got is a maiden issue and an uncompleted second issue.

Growing up is what happened to us. We ultimately became Certified Public Accountants all. And yet at the back of our minds, we long for a chance when we could bake some sinfully delicious cake with a foreign difficult name, or learn tango on a lazy afternoon.

Careers gave us a different kind of strength and freedom - giving each the push of the wind to soar, but with the tug of the string to come back to each other when needed.

Marriage claimed some of us, too. And work and distance can sometimes make you forget. But remembering is sweet. And it is never really difficult to meet and see each other again. You can grow a second chin, but you cannot grow out of a friendship which promised to be there in all kinds of weather. That pact? Oh, it's a girl thing.