Reminiscing the Good Old Days, and Bowing Heads to the Teacher

(Oita Godo Newspaper, February 2^nd 2009, evening paper page 9)

(Oita City) In November 2nd 2008, East Oita Senior High School graduates, who were in third year Class three in year 1967, have reached their sixties and they held a reunion gathering in Daichi Hotel in Oita City. Their teacher, Fujiwara Yasuo, was also invited in the reunion gathering.

After forty-one years being separated, the conversations were endless and the laughters were unstoppable. After kampai, each of them gave a speech, reminiscing about their fond memories in High School, and telling the other friends about their own lives now. They were moved to tears and laughters to notice that even after four decades being separated, their faces are still familiar and the impressions about them do not really change after all the years.

During that reunion, their teacher could now talk freely about her ups and downs while teaching them four decades ago and the students, who have already grown up into adults and become parents or even grandparents who educate their children, could finally understand how the teacher felt in the past. Those who were naughty students in the past apologized to the teacher for all the troubles that they have caused in the past, and then everybody who was present and witnessing the momentous apology clapped their hands.

From this time onwards, they have decided to hold a reunion every year and hope that everybody can be present.

Comments: It must have been heart-warming to meet old friends and to recall good old days. It must have been nice to share your stories, to share that you have fight in life and try your best to fulfill your dreams. It must have been interesting to see how everybody has grown up and live different lives. And it must have been amusing to recall the pranks that you did in highschools, and the fashion or music that you were crazy about during that time. It must be nice to be able to look fondly to those memories, and to understand that life goes on and the only thing that matters is to live your life the way you want, to the fullest.

NUGROHO Katarina Marsha Utama

Indonesia

APM2, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University