Just the other night, I had the sudden urge to look at my album/ scrapbook which I began working on when I was in 3rd year college. I had 3 albums-- one for friends, another for family, and another one for gimmicks. I had pictures already inserted in the album flaps with comments on them, others still waiting to be glued and written on construction paper.

There were pictures of me, Jeane and Glady in High School Sophomore, Junior and Senior year. Those cringe worthy outfits and hair that were the hype back then.

There were pictures of the my high school crew in parties, in school and in our one and only out of town trip-- Enchanted Kingdom. There were pics of our last Christmas Party three years ago where we gave the guys a "sex" gift pack, containing one condom and a stick of yosi. They didn't know which they liked better. There were pics of our group with my ex in it. Luckily, he was standing at the end of the picture so it would be easy for me to crop him off later. (Finally, his anti- social behavior pays off!)

There were pictures of my block group with their crazy poses and smiles.

There were pictures, and even neoprints, of my college barkada (Cel, Riz and Cristy) in our various gimmicks.

There were pictures of my Brady Bunch family. Christmas portraits, a new baby being added to the photo as each year progressed.

There were pictures of my cousins and I swimming in my lola's pool and we have stunts in the pool. Our favorite being the totem pole. Cami would sit on my shoulders while I would sit on Ara's. Two of our smaller cousins and Cami would stand on my, Ara's and Enzo's shoulders. We felt like a family circus.

There were pictures of Cel, Riz, Cristy and I on our end of summer trip to my lola's house in the Island, three days before school started. Cel's camera had a timer and so all of us were included in the picture. We had to rearrange furnitures, pile books upon books where we could place the camera. We would bend into weird positions to look into the viewfinder to see if we all fit the frame. The end result were choreographed candid poses.

There were pictures of me with my long, almost straight hair. I never realized I missed it so much. I wonder how did I end up with this wavy, thick coiffure!

There were pictures of my female dominated block in Tagaytay, a day trip we had because our first class ended at 8:30 am and our next class was at 1:00 PM. The fact that our second subject was boring made it easy for us to cut class. There were pictures of us laughing so hard and giggling and screaming as we watched a blockmate dance like a strip teaser. My blockmate's a guy, by the way, with a personality of a gentleman so seeing him dance exotically made laugh and scream.

There were pictures of my block during the Ad Congress in Cebu. A field trip out of Manila, out of the Luzon Island, no less! We had such a blast!

There were pictures of my ex. And a picture of me in a bikini lying in the sand with the words, "I love (insert unworthy ex boyfriend's name here)" etched on the sand. Seeing those pictures made me cringe and even shudder in disgust. I took them out of the album right away and shoved the pictures in the back of my closet. I'm still deciding whether to burn the pictures or mail it to him with a note, "You might want to keep these for memories sake. I had no use for them a long time ago!"

Of course, there were pictures of A and I on the early days of our relationship. I sighed and I swooned. He was thinner back then and just as cute as he is now. I thought to myself, "Now how can I not fall in love with a face like that?"

Seeing those pictures, going on a sudden trip down memory lane, getting a glimpse of my recent past inspired me to keep making the scrapbook. One of these days, when I have time, I will.