By: Jess Altuna ‘78

Experience of a non golfer attending the BOTONG’s Cup:

I was asked by my roommate why I wanted to go all the way to Phoenix, Arizona to participate in Botong’s Cup held over the weekend since she knows I don’t play golf.

My immediate and unrehearsed response was “Why not?”

And so I elaborated on it a little bit more. Just like what you do back in the old country, we gather together because it what makes us happy being around each other. Studies have been made in certain special places all over the world where seniors routinely live useful and active lives all the way up to the century mark and the common thread is that they find every excuse to laugh and dance and eat together in villages with others they have known for decades. Indeed, we are social beings and our need to interact, exchange plebe stories like it was only yesterday and have been retold many times over still brings us the same laughter heard all the way to the laundry room. Cadet Botong Silva’s vision of a quick weekend Alumni reunion here in CONUS attended by everyone all the way from Canada and states in the East Coast with the average participant spending at least $500 out of pocket money just to play golf in the desert heat meant the experience of conniving with fellow cavaliers is worth more than the cost spent for three days in plane fares and hotel reservations. We were all awarded Cups in the form of disposable cups filled with real life sustaining liquids consumed with the symbolic “tagay bok”.

I remember when I was working full time and time went by so fast that the only thing I could remember doing the previous year were the vacations we took as a family. We needed a respite from the daily grind and the stress that comes with it so we can live longer and healthier lives. I attended Botong’s Cup to see and to be seen. Sadly for some, it could be the last time we see some of the familiar faces. I commend Botong for his willingness to host and share his time to make the event an unforgettable experience for everyone who was there to be part of it.

She still couldn’t understand and appreciate the trip I took and so, I avoided a long, winded conversation with a “I was happy”. Explaining it to her in detail versus being there is the difference between listening to BeeGees songs and attending a live concert. You have to be there. There is no substitute and when her parting shot was “But you don’t play golf?”, I said “Don’t you see that golf was just an excuse for us to gather?”