Elisa Esguerra High School resides at the long stretch of Gen. Luna Street at Hulong Duhat, Malabon. It is under the direct supervision of Arellano University in Legarda Manila. E.E.H.S. was actually not your ideal school. It has about 50 classrooms “only” scattered in 3 floors. If my memory serves me right, we only have 3 comfort rooms, one each floor, situated in different areas. A small canteen, a single practical arts room, a ground that fits two basketball courts along with the number of classrooms I’ve mentioned earlier comprised our entire campus. This is probably half of our sister school Jose Rizal High School also in Malabon.
J.R.H.S was actually closer to my house. But most of my friends handpicked E.E.H.S. that persuaded me to go along with their choice. During my freshman year, which was in 1990, I’m lucky to be included in section 1 together with my grade school mates. I can described myself back then as a tamed sheep in a lion’s den. We rarely go out of our class room, except during recess, and we normally went straight to our houses. But things made a drastic change the following year. As a sophomore we are now more accustomed to the in’s and out’s of the surroundings. We also have our first taste of girls, literally and figuratively. But my fondness with these creatures was cut short when my mother died. But life must continue and I moved on with my junior year with a broken leg, so to speak. It was a fruitful year where we started to carve our own name. But nothing is more memorable than our senior year where younger students looked up to us. I became a member of CAT’s model platoon which bagged the 1st placed trophy in marching competition held in Legarda Main. For second straight year, we participated in basketball intramurals though produced negative results. It was also the year where we learned how to smoke but certainly not drugs. Several fistfights also marred our 4th year but mostly because of my very quiet and peace loving friend, Roque. I considered our batch lucky because we experienced successive Foundation days and JS proms which are not usual according to our predecessors. But the culmination of all this is our graduation which epitomize our happiest and loneliest moment of our high school days. The reality of seeing each other go our own separate ways is looming. But all good things must end. We just have to move on and curved our own destiny.
Every time I passed by in front of the now defunct E.E.H.S, which incidentally was closed four years after our graduation, I can’t help but reminisce all the good and the not so pleasant things that happened in that abandoned building. My classmates, my terror teacher Ms. Padilla, Arellano Hymn, cutting classes, passion for Beatles, horror booth, basketball and volleyball tournaments, the late Mr. Villas, CAT officers, 2x3 haircuts, NCEE exam etc. all of them became part of that important stage of my life.
Some of my friends were now in other countries, working or settling for good. Some became engineers, managers, professionals, have their own business etc. But there are also some who were not as lucky as the others. Some of them are living without permanent job, separated with their husband or wife, raising bunch of kids etc. But despite all of this, every one of us share a common denominator, that once in our lives, we walked in the cemented floor of Elisa Esguerra High School, our beloved Alma Mater.
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