Gravestones usually double as markers for where people are buried and as something to remember dead loved ones by, but a recent college graduate found another way to use them.
University of the Philippines Los Baños graduate Mac Andre Arboleda is currently viral online after asking his parents for a lapida (gravestone) for his graduation present.
His photo with the unconventional gift was posted on Facebook on Sunday and had 4,800 reactions, 1,400 shares and 65 comments as of this article’s posting.
A closeup picture of the gravestone he is now using as a profile photo, meanwhile, had 15,000 shares, 12,000 reactions and 1,400 comments.
“My parents’ grad gift: a remembrance,’’ his post’s caption reads.
“Something material to sum up my 8 looong weird years in college.”
“Panis yang tarp mo,’’ his profile photo caption reads. This roughly translates to ‘‘Your tarpaulin poster has nothing on this.”
In a Facebook message to Coconuts Manila, Arboleda said he did not want a tarpaulin poster because those were eventually taken down.
“With a lapida, I can just place it in my room, and I’ll remember my whole college life just by looking at it. Plus I can use it as a patungan [makeshift desk] for my overheating laptop when I’m lying on my bed,” he said.
The odd request did not even bother his parents.
“They know I’m into ‘weird’ stuff like that, so when I messaged my mom on Facebook… she literally just replied a thumbs-up emoji.”
They got it made in Anos, Los Baños, and said that the maker found their request funny. “[H]e said he never got any requests like that before and was so into it.”
His friends were not surprised by his idea either. The 24-year-old Development Communication graduate said that even people from school with whom he was not particularly close had congratulated him.
While a lot of people online had commented about wanting one for themselves, Arboleda said, there had been negative reactions, too. Some people called him “weird,” but he didn’t let them bother him and he thought their comments were hilarious.
He knew his photo would be a hit online but did not expect it to go this viral.