We went to La Union for my lola’s funeral last week. As we left Sison, Pangasinan, we crossed the same bridge that I have crossed many many times since I left home to go to college in Manila. It’s the bridge that marks the boundary between La Union and Pangasinan. I call it the “homesick” bridge because of my first experience crossing it going back to San Fernando during my freshman year in UP.

It was the sembreak of 1995, my first year away from home. I went to the Times bus station in Dapitan (near the University of Santo Tomas) to get a ride home. I shared the bus with other La Union-bound freshmen who were excited to go home. I could tell that they were freshmen too because of the new-college-people chatter. I didn’t know anyone but shared smiles of barely-suppressed excitement with my seatmate. I sat at the middle-front part of the bus.

The bus stopped in Sison for the drivers to get some snacks and coffee. As soon as we boarded the bus again, the student passengers were wide awake and chatting wildly. The La Union bridge came into view and everyone was silent for a while. As we started to cross the bridge, shouts of hurray and stomping could be heard from the back part of the bus. The passengers at middle and the front part of the bus followed suit, and soon the whole bus was ringing with applause and screeches of homesick students going home for the first time since school started.

I heard the driver snicker “Dagiti mailiw nga ub-ubing.” (”these homesick kids”). I laughed so hard that i got hiccups.

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