Mood: Happy
My very first best friend was my mother. My father was always at work, and so she's the only person who had been there all my life. We formed a rather strange bond, deeper than a mother-daughter relationship. It was strange in a sense that we always talked like teenage girls. Age was forgotten, and so we would talked in a rather crass way. Much like teen agers.
When I reached kindergarten, a girl named Elizabeth became my very first official, non-relative best friend. I remember it somewhat distinctly: during recess, at that time, we would always eat together with her yaya. And then one fateful day she told me: "Best friends na tayo ha."
It was my very first heartwarming friendship. She told me girls' bathroom ghost stories, taught me bacteria (why I shouldn't let my yaya drink from my straw first) and more profound stuff only kindergarten girls could understand. When I think of it, the only thing I remember sharing were my Barbie dolls.
We were separated early, by the time we reached first grade. I'm not exactly sure whether she transferred to another school or we were at different sections (I was in morning class). But for sometime, our friendship lingered. The school service often passed by her house, and she knew well that I was there, looking out. For about several months she would come out when the school service slowed down in front of it. She would wave at me, smiling. I always looked out, waved, and smiled back.
Several months into the school year, the school service suddenly changed its route. At times it slowed past Elizabeth's house and she would hear it, and then we'd do our little ritual. But as time passed, she got tired, perhaps. The school service came, sometimes it didn't. When I reached second grade and the service passed by her house once more, she never came out.
Never again.
I met my next best friend in fifth grade. Like love affairs, we didn't know how we started. But I remember exactly how our first conversation went: "May 'n' pa yung pangalan ko," she told me after I wrote her name in the board. She was elected as class muse. This was the first time I encountered an "Anna" with "double n". Although we fondly called her Mitzi.
We were always together in class and were constantly linked through phone calls and letters. We wrote letters even if we sat less than a yard away. (Well come to think of it, everyone did that in elementary and high school!)
I met Stephanie in sixth grade. It was there that I realized I wasn't good in having to hold two strong ropes. Mitzi and Stephanie somewhat clashed. I didn't know what to do so I didn't do anything. It was at that time that I committed my greatest mistake ever, in a friendship: I took sides.
But later into the year, all went well. Perhaps it was partly due to childhood naiveté. Fight one minute, play the next hour. We graduated elementary as a threesome.
In high school, the world turned on me. I was not left alone though; but it was strange that Stephanie and Mitzi grew close, while I drifted apart. Of course I was to blame then. A girl named Erica had become my constant companion; words abound, such that I was becoming "too busy" and forgetful. Of course I was forgetful, but I was never too busy. I resolved to try to get the three together, but Mitzi's personality was, uhm, quite unique; she didn't get along well with Erica.
Junior year in high school came, and Erica left. Things turned insane. I was again, in the midst of a clash, but this time it was different. Mitzi and Steph were still my "best-est best friends" but I had formed a strange bond with Avon and Romeo. Strange, such that I don't remember anything about fights anymore; when it was all about that. What remains is the fact that up to this day, they have proved to be among my "best-est best friends".
Another great friend was Miggy. Now that I think about it, we are such a strange lot. No, it was not Harry Potter that made us close; it was something else, perhaps the time I cried and he tried to cheer me up. Or perhaps it was our friendships with the objects of our affections then. Needless to say, he was one of the people I called upon during the lowest point of my life. I remember one time when he held me, and it felt like I was being embraced by my father. I cried after he left then, ironically, because I was very happy to have him around.
The biggest letting-go was after high school. I was thrust into the uncertain world of college where I didn't know anyone. Not one soul. The first person I met was Jenny, at the infirmary during the medical check-up. We saw each other again during the second semester. We're seatmates today in biochemistry class.
I don't exactly remember who I met first. But Yna, Mia and Ysa were definitely the top three. We were blocmates and PE classmates; Mia and Yna were my super-classmates then. Ysa was my first brush with an angel (she waited with me for my sundo then). By far, she is the sweetest person I know.
Yna was my super-classmate during the second semester of first year. She was partly the reason why I did not understood Trigonometry (Trigonometry class had been a discussion about our lives than sine waves and geometric projections); we shared the same crushes in Bio 3, and had more discussions over lunch at KFC.
Eventually, I met Josh. The fondest memory I have with her was in KFC, too; she had called me Elle. We struck up a conversation, and I was amazed at how wonderful she was. I had found talking with new people (which is abound, here in college) too daunting, and here she was, like we had been friends forever.
It was only last semester that I got to sit with Belle. Like my friendship with Miggy, I find our bond strange. I could not put it into words but the closest reason I could say is that, she is way more hysterical than I perceived her to be.
Mia surprisingly acts like Mitzi. I have to endure this semester being "semi super-classmates" with her (endure, because she is the ONLY person who can physically maltreat me…) Anyway, it is only now that I noticed how she suddenly reminds me of her [Mitzi]. So much so that I laugh without apparent reason (and they confuse it with making pa-cute here and there… tsk, tsk…)
The strong personality. Dagger looks. Quiet demeanor. Even the way she hits me (Mitzi hits me, but with a minimum of negative Joules. Mia hits me and I fly). The only difference is Mia's unassuming hilarity.
Once, I had prayed for at least one angel to guide me through college. I really did pray. I remember being very scared. Just one please, I said. And God gave me five.
Five to value. One to remember my past; four to embrace the future.
Isa sa pinakabihirang pangyayari sa aking buhay ang makatulog ng higit sa isang oras at magising na ang pakiramdam ay parang bagong ligo lang sa batis sa Mt. Banahaw (nung di pa ito nadidiskubre ng mga tao).
