The House of Glitter

I told you he's a Gaga fan...
If he could grow those freaky-cool horns/thorns on his face, he would

I just spent half of my afternoon and night with my long-time best friend, Jerich "Glitterkid" Eusebio.

The Lady Gaga, theatric-crazed, top notch nursing student has been my friend for a decade and one. A person like myself rarely gets to feel a cut when it's happening, and that's a metaphor for realizing what you have the moment it hits you. It takes me time to rejoice at great news or to suckairthroughgrittedteeth in pain. But the moment I do land at a "crispy realization" (to borrow from Bon Iver) it whips me with its tail. 

So the "Glitterkid" celebrated his birthday yesterday, his 20th in fact and claims that today, was one of his best birthday celebrations ever. I'm glad that's the case cause if there's anyone (among the very few that I deeply care for) whom I'd love to "make" happy, it's definitely him. In my short list of people I'd probably die for, he figures in that list. And out of the four very important people I've met in my Lourdes days, he's also one of them and is probably the oldest I've known too. We go wayyyyyyyyyyyy back and when we both get mushy (which he knows I'd avoid) it amazes the two of us how much we've grown together and into very different people. What's probably most brilliant about the two of us is how much we get each other but at the same time we're standing on different points of the personality spectrum. He's proud to be eccentric (at times aggressively asserting it) and I'm oddly quite reserved (very oddly...).

As an analysis to put for my relationship with Jerich, it compares to a kid growing up and going back home. He stays at home for most of his life, goes out and travels the world to pursue dreams, at times losing himself along the way, but in the end goes back home. The home as a metaphor pales compare to what Jerich and I really have. Sure we've had our giant riffs and those irritating moments, just like everybody else, but when things are mended and healed (and even when they're not), it feels awfully right. I've made my mistakes when it comes to our friendship, he has too, and friendships are never perfect anyway. 

But what Jerich has taught me is impressive. From the most mundane of things to the shared interests we take great care to exploring the depths of human life, I'll always carry them with me wherever I set sail to. Whatever he's taught me has greatly impacted my life and the way I see myself and other people. Calling him promising is an understatement. I've always looked at him as someone making an impression, if not change, in a bigger picture. We're both idealists but as we've aged, we have been tampered with by the reasonable hands of reality, and still, what he wants for himself, for his friends and for life, in general, will keep you waiting in anticipation. 

I have my expectations of him, not because I want to see him fail, but because I know he's bound to make it, if not surpass it. And just like my other best of friends, (Tj and Bob), I could never really imagine going through life without the humor, the talent, the intelligence, the acceptance and understanding, the sense of things beyond the self and the undying love he has. I always tell him that the reason why people don't see him the way I do is because they weren't allowed to, others have chosen not to...But it all boils down to pinching the world like it's a photo on an iTouch or an iPhone...In the greater, grander scheme of things, those who don't get you are but tiny specks in the picture. What should matter is just how big the spirit could get despite of these things and at the same time, staying as tiny as them in physical reality. 

Seeing and knowing him now, he's doing so much better than the ghost of his past. And I'm happy that he is, because he deserves to be happy and to be growing into the person he's supposed to be. Talking to him hours ago felt like going back home...This time, it's festive, Lady Gaga sounding, definitely smart and most of all, shining like its built on glitter.

Happy Birthday my decade-long best friend....

For dreams, for life and for future lives to come.

-Gerard