SAPPHIRES 2020 | HIGH SCHOOL 1975
TALES FROM OUR VIRTUAL VELADA: SAPPHIRES 2020! HIGH SCHOOL 1975
by Cedie Lopez Vargara
ALL HAIL…….
“Ladies, we have exactly one month to come up with a virtual presentation in celebration of our 45th year!
Can we do this?!!!”
These words were uttered as command and challenge by our gentle but firm and exacting class ‘head master’, Betchay Santos Monserrat.
The process of pulling together and producing a group video promised to be nothing short of monumental.
How does one even begin to organize a multitude of headstrong female senior citizens into mounting a unified and meaningfully messaged presentation to mark 4.5 decades of Assumption-ness?
Credit the unflagging school spirit that inflames us every time we mark a milestone Velada year!
Class of 1975 was quite known for always meeting cliffhanger deadlines in compliance with requirements while pushing timely cooperation towards the very edge of boundary limits.
Velada 2020 was absolutely no exception!
A production was to be mounted amid lockdowns, pandemic anxiety, multi-country time zone differences, stage fright and the vagaries attached to aging bodies, and elusive memory retention capacity.
“We will be singing…. And dancing???!!!” (insert ‘horrified’ emoji here)
As they say, “It takes a village…..”
A project team was instantly formed and, against all odds, began to work.
To wit:
An admirably focused Betchay Monserrat as our leader, with the help of Charito Abad-Santos, Dra. Lexie Tankeh-Torres, Cedie Vargas and ten section representatives to lead sub-teams and herd 80+ participants into submission;
The cooperation of all the participants and permits from original composer, Nonong Pedero and singer of the chosen song, Leah Navarro;
The full support of a creative (albeit embattled) ABS-CBN team managing in the midst of suffering job loss as their company was disenfranchised;
A musical arranger producing a brilliantly adapted musical score suited to The Assumptionista voice and style of singing;
Husbands, children, and various other relatives being pressed into service as technology navigators, camera persons, visual stylists, teleprompters, video editors, and all-around critics of their wives/ mothers/sisters’ performance execution.
Then came the demands for the performers:
1. Vocalizing and constant singing practice inclusive of memorizing the lyrics were highly encouraged;
2. An age-appropriate choreographed routine c/o the Alvarez twins, to complement the singing, was recorded and routed for all to internalize;
3. the prescribed color scheme of royal blue to be worn by each performer while being videoed simultaneously singing and energetically swaying to the song;
4. An additional task assigned to solo singers of recording themselves singing into their clothes closet to achieve better audio quality.
In the end, after much vocal anguish and aching muscles, the video was professionally edited, subjected to the micro scrutiny of Headmaster Betchay, and finally submitted to the Velada 2020 organizers, the class of 1995 who executed such an inspired and meaningfully relevant production, that we, the HS 1975 were genuinely proud to have been a part of.
On “OLD GIRLS Day”, as we sat down to watch the ultimate results of our exhausting endeavor, we asked ourselves “What exactly did we do this for?!”
The words of SR. Luz Emmanuel Soriano, RA, continue to resonate.
“The bonds of friendship formed in high school are bonds that will last for a lifetime!”
Indeed, the act of being part of or even merely witnessing the Assumption yearly Velada gently brings one back to that safe space of comfortable solidarity layered on by memories and shared experiences built over the years; a space affirming enough to allow each of us to come back together at a moment’s notice to celebrate where and how it all began.
From there, we come away, our spirits nourished and renewed, our collective sense of mission and purpose rekindled!
