This will be a long one so please bear with me.
I’ve had and lost many friendships over the years. Friends that called themselves my besties and all that bull. But today is about one particular friend. Let’s call her Tifa!
I’m not really exactly sure when it was we became friends but I believe it was when we became seatmates in Primary Four. We remained seatmates up to Primary Six when I briefly changed schools. I eventually returned to my former school for Primary Seven but Tifa and I were put in different streams so bye bye seatmate! 😕
We stayed friends but it wasn’t the same because now I had no one to ditch Religious Education classes and sit in the school playground telling each other outrageous lies about our respective household items with. 😔
I also didn’t have anyone to ditch Music class with so I’d go alone and get bored. 😑 We’d sometimes meet and chat during breaks but being in a candidate class, there really wasn’t much time for chitchat.
Time for Secondary School applications came and we got to sit next to each other in the school hall one last time. We both agreed we’d apply to only Girls’ (single sex) schools for secondary because over the seven years of Primary, we were fed up of studying with boys. 😂 Our respective Parents were present that day to help us select good schools (even though they didn’t know the reason behind our choices). We applied to almost the same four schools with one exception! Our first choice schools differed.
Three months later I’m admitted to a good school and I’m reporting (2 weeks late) for my first term in Boarding School and guess who’s at that same school! 🤗
I was placed in a different stream from hers but you have no idea how relieved I was to see a not only familiar but also friendly face in a sea of new people! 😅 Tifa and I slept in different dormitories in our first year’s first term. Oh, did I mention that we both had ended up in a Mixed (Girls and Boys) School? 😖
In our second term, there was a little change up in the school sleeping arrangements and we ended up in the same dormitory! Even though we didn’t attend classes together, we got to hangout after classes and converse until late in the night (after evening Prep) while everyone else was already asleep! 😀
Fast forward to Year two of our O’ Level and we were placed in the same stream this time round! We both retained our seatmates from the previous year though and remained with those same seatmates till we completed our O’ Level.
In our Senior Four right before our finals, we were sad about being separated again and both knew the coincidence of ending up in the same school for A’ Level was not going to happen. So we made a pact. That we’d meet up in 10 years and we’d catch up. 😌 But we didn’t have to wait 10 years to see each other again because we went to the same Church and the same Mass. We’d chat for a minute or two after Mass and go our separate ways before it got dark (It was evening mass).
But as time went by, we stopped meeting because I’d miss going and when I went, she’d miss… And no, we had no phones to call or text each other like kids these days. Eventually, we totally lost contact but that was ok because I still knew somehow, we’d fulfill our pact.
A few years later… when Tifa was done with University, she managed to get my phone number (we were now old enough to have phones 🙄) and she called me! 💃🏾 Excitement doesn’t even begin to describe what I was feeling when I finally heard from her again. We made plans to meet up and we did!
That’s the thing about true friendship. You can lose touch for years but the moment you meet again, it’ll be like you never lost touch at all! Seamless conversations, no awkwardness… none of that! Anyway, that was four years ago. Two years before the time we had planned to meet again back on O’ Level.
We lose touch every now and again (she loses her phones a lot) but she always finds me again! ☺️
Tifa is happily married now and is expecting her first child! 🤗 Gosh! I’m old! 😳🤦🏾♀️
I wrote this blog for Tifa. I tell her often but I want her to know that she means the world to me and that I truly appreciate her sticking around all these years! Many “friends” left but you never did and for that, I thank you!
Forgive me for any times I may not have been there for you for some reason and if something I’ve ever said has hurt you and you stayed silent about it. 🙏🏾
You’re going to make an amazing Mum because you’ve already got the patience part nailed and that child is going to be the luckiest kid in the world because they get to have you for a Mum! 😊
I love you Tifa, never EVER forget that! ❤️
