Para sa fresh grad: Alone/Together and the pursuit for greatness
“Gusto ko na magtrabaho agad. Gusto ko na mapakinabangan. Gusto ko nang baguhin ang mundo,” Tin (Liza Soberano) boldly declares to her boyfriend Raf (Enrique Gil) over isaw on a late afternoon in UPD campus.
It has been exactly a week since I graduated from college. Yes, I am part of the pilot batch of the government’s K-12 program. The same batch that also survived more than two years of online learning because of the pandemic. And for many of us fresh graduates, Tin’s earnest declaration echoes our own eager desires for this new and upcoming chapter of our lives. But Alone/Together spares us the fantasy because the reality is not always what we dreamed of.
Tin is about to graduate from college with high honors. She wants to work abroad. She also wants to pursue further studies via Erasmus and Chevening scholarships (which I think is unheard of for a fresh grad, lol). Raf is an aspiring doctor, but he got delayed in pre-med school for another year. Later, when Tin’s negligence nearly cost her her job at a company, she breaks up with Raf. In a desperate attempt to save the relationship, Raf proposes to Tin, who rejects him, and they separate.
While the film is marketed as such, I am actually averse to calling Alone/Together a romance because I think there are other themes besides love that better depict the stories of the main characters. Themes that are more grounded and universal (especially for those who haven’t experienced romance). Such as maturity and growing up.
From the very beginning, Tin and Raf’s lives moved at different velocities. On the one hand, you have someone transitioning from a naive teen to a fully-fledged adult, while on the other hand, you have someone who is delayed by their circumstances, thereby having to spend more time stuck between phases. Tin is also more ambitious. She wants to grow up quickly, so she can live her dream of being a museum director. Meanwhile, Raf simply wants to be with his girlfriend as they both strive for their respective careers. While this divergence of goals ultimately serves as the impetus for their falling out, it also delineates their own unique paths to maturity.
Tin’s course is one of wide-eyed ambition. She is enamored with the world around her. She cannot wait to dive headfirst to see what it has to offer her. Moreover, Raf’s course is subtle and dependent on convention. He is patient to wait by the shores, hoping the tides will bring prosperity his way if he stays. In the process of growing up, we are either Tin or Raf. Either we run ahead, or we stay and wait. But we will find later on that there is no perfect path.
Five years later, they reunite and meet at the same spot as in the beginning of the film. Tin confesses to Raf: “‘Pag nasa harap mo na pala, iba eh. Mahirap maging matapang, mauunahan ka ng takot.”
She was referring to her carelessness years ago at her company, but it can also mean that she did not expect life to turn out so real and catch her like a deer in the headlights. It is easy to make bold declarations in the pursuit for greatness when you are young and invincible. The only difference is that when you get older, you have to bear responsibility for that greatness and its consequences. Tin, in her haste to grow up and change the world, ended up dreary and unfulfilled in a corporate job and the arms of an aloof lover. In a spur-of-the-moment decision to extend her stay in New York, Tin visits the museums of her dreams together with Raf, who later reminds her of her original ambitions: “‘Wag mo kasing isipin ‘who I was.’ Isipin mo ‘who I should be.’”
In the film’s opening scene, Tin, a part-time guide in the National Museum, tells a group of high school students about its most famous painting, The Spoliarium. She also references the popular 1997 Eraserheads song of the same name, albeit incorrectly. It is where she first encounters Raf, who cheekily corrects her. And the song is an odd and dark choice for a musical motif in a romantic drama (still not convinced). But I think this lyric in the chorus perfectly captures the turmoil of Tin and Raf’s journey, and even our own as new graduates, to maturity and greatness: “Pwede bang itigil muna / Ang pag-ikot ng mundo.”