12/31/2010
UP ABM
An ABM Christmas by Raphael Ryan Malilay
My assignment was to write about the ABM Christmas Party. The fact is that I could very well do just that, informing everyone who bothered to care that it was held exactly one week ago, around 7 PM, at Burgundy Place. That there was videoke, that those present – alumni, members, and inductees – had fun and bade one another Merry Christmas. That the different committees contributed food and drinks for the party. That the inductees gave Membership Committee Chair and Executive Vice-President Demi Menez an advanced happy birthday gift in the form of letters and, as she mentioned having wanted, a Moleskine notebook.
I could say that there was alcohol, but… that kind of goes without saying. I could reveal any number of details – that, happily, someone brought isaw, that there were two other parties next door, that the party was on the 4th floor, that, for a moment, there was a shortage of cups – that, while true, I’d wager a guess that most everyone could care less about. You’re probably just reading this because you’re bored, with no expectations of anything you haven’t already heard before in countless numbers of Christmas articles.
My assignment was to write about the ABM Christmas Party. When I was given this, I was told to show how ABM celebrated Christmas as seen in the Christmas Party; another would be writing about it as seen through the Caroling. And as I was writing my part, I realized that I’d made the terrible mistake of talking about the Christmas Party as an event – blame the fact that I’m coming from editing the Biologue articles, almost all of which involved News. I was seeing it from such an objective point of view that <microscope joke>.
I was talking about the trees and flowers and weeds and soil microorganisms without mentioning the forest, to use that metaphor Dr. Buerano likes so much. The fact is that at the end of the day, what matters is what the Christmas Party stood for – a chance for ABMers to bond, to see one another one last time before Christmas, before the New Year.
More important, however, is what the Christmas Party revealed: an untiring friendship within the org. Fresh from the Lantern Parade and post-Lantern Parade dinner the night before, fresh from having spent most of the afternoon and most of the evening with one another, fresh from playing with jejecopters and jejeballs to kill the time before the fireworks started, fresh from jump shots and group photos – those in the org still chose to be with one another, to spend even more time talking and laughing with those people who, by all accounts, should already be triggering cabin fever.
And, at the end of the day, that’s everything I wanted to say about how ABM celebrates Christmas: with each other as a family, living the life they spend day in and day out studying.
Always being merry with one another – that’s ABM for you.
Happy Christmas.
