Rekindling the Flames: AMP 2nd GA
Very few events have the capacity to illicit a resurgence of memories from a person; events or occurrences so strong that they force you to look back and embed meaning into a memory that you perhaps didn’t even notice before. Standing there, on the roofdeck of MVP, taking in all there was to take in from ((aMp))’s 2nd GA, I could recall my first few months of college. The prospect of signing up for orgs seemed so new; frighteningly new, in fact. When I chose my organizations, I filled my head with silent promises, all saying how I would do my best for this organization and that I would remain active no matter what. The first few months are the easiest, of course. There’s always time to waste, and you’d figure, why not waste it on some of my organizations? But as time passes, things get heavier, and heavier, until you, without your notice, start to break the promises you made to yourself at the start of it all. You straighten your priorities, and you realize that some of those things don’t quite fit in, so you drop them; you sweep them under the rug, hoping one day they’d go away. They do, eventually. We’ve all been there; we all know what it’s like to have something that seems so important and then gradually lose interest, and we’re left wondering how something that seemed so important at the time seem so meaningless now?
As irrelevant as all this might seem, there’s actually a point to this little ramble of mine. See, as I stood there observing various antics that were pulled in ((aMp))’s 2nd GA, it became clear to me why I never felt that way about ((aMp)), not even once, and it’s because of events such as these. Even though it seems like we’ve already accomplished so much in this past semester, this second GA is basically ((aMp))’s way of saying “We’re not done yet”; suffice to say, ((aMp)) has a knack for it.
I suppose a succinct description of the entire event would be… intense. It started off with a few songs from Kaleidoscope Eyes, which seemed to get the crowd in the mood. Then, our very own President David Lina took macho man strides towards the stage for a well-spoken opening speech. But to give credit where it is due, part of the event’s success is due to the two hosts; our very own RJ Dimla, who made use of his debonair charms to try and woo every single woman that stepped foot on the stage, and JC Del Mundo, whom I hope finds happiness with his yellow-clad mystery woman.
When the time came for everyone to push the chairs back and play a game, things started to get intense. Perhaps the best analogy I could use to illustrate just how intense the game, and the entire GA, was, is the “Eye of the Tiger” tableau of the Prod department; a boxing fight so intense that even the referee had to take his shirt off.
When all the mayhem had died down, and when all the projects such as AMPlitude, AMPlitube, AMPlitunes, Soloist Night, and of course, the Recital had been thoroughly discussed, Last Minute took the stage and put everyone in a trance with their music while the sign-ups began. Honestly speaking, if the goal of the GA was to give everyone a wake-up call; to get them all riled up and screaming “((aMp)) is still alive and kicking”, then I would gladly suppose that the goal was achieved. And perhaps it’s the melodramatic romanticist in me that’s to blame for my rambling earlier on, and perhaps it’s also that very side of me that connects seemingly invisible lines and draws meanings from imperceptible symbols, but there’s just something about the second GA that was very much like an open flame; enveloping and igniting whatever is caught in it. An apt metaphor, in my opinion, seeing as it managed to rekindle a certain something inside all those who present at the MVP Rooftop, on the 23rd night of November; it managed to reignite our passion for ((aMp)); to refuel our lAMP. Yes, I went there.
by Vaughn Benitez
Photos by Sara Abrigo & Karen Dela Fuente
