Making friends is very hard, especially when you are quite a niche, eccentric and unapproachable person. I’ve decided that because of these qualities I was not going to make any friends this semester. Oh where’s that overly dramatic “climbing over the mountain” metaphor I was going to use to tie up a story of friendship? I guess for me, making friends is like climbing over the mountain, it’s incredibly difficult, it’s tiring, sometimes you just want to give up but if you try hard enough, you get to the peak and feel like a winner, and what comes after that? It’s either, you stay at the top which is quite nice, since you get to see that beautiful view everyday but I guess in this case… not very [refer to blue shirt guy], you also get to enjoy the experience or you fall down, it’s quite easy, you just kind of slide down and boom friendship over. I guess I had more of those during my existence. It’s hard to keep friends… why? Because sometimes a single event may happen that may make your relationship irreparable, sometimes it’s a series of misunderstandings and sometimes it’s because they’re taking advantage over you. I can list down more things that can lead to reasons why friendships end but this blog will go on forever. My point is, friendships are easier to finish than to begin one but, in the event, that it begins, it’s like you’re overlooking at a mountain peak… I know the metaphor is quite forced but I’m using it anyways as this video is only filled with montages of my trip to Mount Batulao. Where was I? Oh yeah, it’s like a mountain peak, there are lots of things to observe, trees, animals, other mountains, buildings afar, mannerisms, facial expressions, words that make them happy, sad, angry, the way they dress, the way they talk, it’s all quite entertaining and at the same time very intimate, sometimes these observations can become intimate, you learn about their lives, their experiences, their secrets and how much they care about you. Eventually, through your observations, you’ll start to look deeper, sometimes you will not like what you see, this can lead to two paths: it either makes you want to stay at the peak more, or it forces you to descend. As a socially awkward person, friendships are like grand adventures, filled with mystery, hardships, discoveries and magic!
Anyways, that was only the introduction, now we get to the boring part, which is the less poetic and more factual part. So I went to Mount Batulao with my loud and slightly humorous friend Auldrien, when I first saw him… Oh I just realized how gay that is… I promise you, no homo. When I first saw him, I never thought I was going to climb a mountain with him, I mean my first impression of him was that he was going to be a school shooter because he was always so quiet and he was very fast to come in and get out of the classroom, as if he just wanted to get things done and leave as soon as possible. I remember trying to talk to the monsters in my brain called anxiety, I was asking its permission to talk to this one guy across the classroom but I guess he didn’t allow me for a few weeks, but then when it went away for a vacation, I decided I was going to approach him, we talked about usual nerd stuff, anime etc. We also happen to ride the same bus to go back to our families’ homes’, so I guess climbing the mountain gradually became easier but also LOUDER. In hindsight, he’s very talkative and annoying, however, he also happens to be a really fun friend to be around with, he is there in my highs and lows and he’s just generally a nice person, I guess that is not readily obvious but going back to that forced mountain allusion, you just sort of have to try and climb that mountain and maybe you’ll find a nice friend at the very peak. I forgot about the FACTUAL part, from Cavite State University, you just need to go to Indang town proper, ride the jeepney that is front of 7/11 that says it will go to ‘Olivarez’ [22 pesos] and tell the driver to stop at Mendez Crossing, from there ride a bus to Nasugbu [13 pesos] then tell the bus driver to drop you off to where you can climb Mount Batulao, ride a tricycle [100 pesos] that will take you to the base of the mountain and make sure when you’re at the base, you hire a guide [any amount will do but a reasonable fee to give to them is usually at least 500 pesos] because it is going to be a painful trip if you don’t especially if you’re an unexperienced mountain climber like me, there will be instances where you will have to hold your guide’s hand for a big portion of the trip when you’re in rocky and sandy terrain or when you are at very dangerously steep areas. Take lots of break! I cannot stress this! It’s quite a long trail, bring water and food and make sure you arrive early as hiking in the afternoon is going to be hellishly hot!
I guess if it’s not obvious enough, this is not just about my personal experience socializing with people and climbing mountains. It’s also a guide for those people like me who are not very good at making friends, yeah, it’s going to be difficult, sometimes it won’t work out but eventually you’ll get there! Don’t be scared and don’t be lazy. Climb mountains figuratively and literally!
