What's Ur Name

C’mon, admit it.

You have been called names before. Kids can be mean.

And probably until now, you are still a victim of such childish behavior. It now comes in the form of backstabbing. Welcome to the adult world.

Being freakishly thin and sickly during high school, I was a favorite target of bullies. They would call me names such as “bangkay” (corpse) or “kalansay” (skeleton).

Everyday, I dreaded coming to school for fear of being ridiculed. It was that insane. Early on, I started to plot my revenge.

A few years after high school, I ran into one of them. My bully was walking towards me. I felt my knees weaken. His first words were, “Ang gwapo mo na, pare!” (Man, you look good!)

I guess he couldn’t believe that the guy he once bullied and the person he was now face to face with were one and the same. I felt vindicated. He, on the other hand, was flabby and acne prone.

Over pizza, pasta, and gelato, I bonded with female officemates. Oh, we also had pastries from Becky’s and the “original” Lapid’s chicharon (pork rinds).

Man, was it a gab fest! I didn’t contribute much. But I laughed a great deal. Things turned really interesting when they started yakking about our colleagues, in particular those who were not with us that night.

Suddenly, I felt I was back in high school. I was weak in the knees again.

Post script: I just had about enough of backstabbing and such meaningless banter. My girl best friend and I just had a falling out because of this.