YOUNG VOICE
Friends and blueberry cheesecakes
I thought friends were those you see in slumber parties, who paint each other's nails with bright neon pink glitter polish while gossiping about the latest breakup of a hot couple in school.
I thought they were the endurance artists who could talk over the phone for hours. Or the choir members in a symphony of rhythmic and successive giggles after finding out that the cutest guy on campus is single and searching.
Friends... I thought I had some. As it turns out, they were just gossiping, shrieking and giggling telephone maniacs with bright neon pink glitter polished nails.
Long ago, I thought that friendship was limited to gift giving when there is an occasion, to group studying and copying from each other, offering handkerchiefs when we cry.
I thought I was doomed to a life without friends or not knowing what friendship is like. But, some wacky and weird creatures came barging at my doorstep and called me to open up to an amazing adventure.
We call each other names that are different from the decent ones that our parents gave. We eat on one chocolate fudge sundae with one plastic spoon, thus passing one kind of salivary amylase to the next. Little did we know that our strange way of interaction will soon flourish to the most beautiful experience of friendship.
Less than a year. That was how long a friendship of people from different walks of life came to be. A fusion of diverse personalities that merged into a strong group.
A few weeks earlier, I celebrated my 17th birthday and shared my well-blessed year with my so-called friends. We slept over but didn't get sleep anyway. We didn't paint each other's nails nor giggled about frustrated love stories. In my farmland of a home, we raced around the vast plains of rugged mini hills and carabao dung, played games on the broken multi-colored tiled flooring of our garage, trailed across a 20-feet-high bamboo bridge that was still undergoing construction and wished for a high score in videoke by singing our lungs out loud.
I would like to define friendship based on that sleepover. Friendship is when you ride at the back of a pick-up wearing pajamas, shivering because of the icy-cold air at 11 in the evening, getting weird stares from people on the sidewalk, and driving towards a classy hotel just to pick up a friend attending a social function.
I would like to define friends based on the morning after the sleepover. Friends are people who, after you have smelled their unbearable farting and disgusting morning breath, continue to hug each other with gusto and sincerity.
These friends wait for me every time I struggle with my bag's zipper before moving on to the next class; they don't care if they'll be late for a minute, as long as we're walking together.
They respond to my text messages and are sweet enough to add on a smiley after each sentence. They pat me on the back for every accomplishment I gain and cry with me for every failure I have. We also love the same pastry –blueberry cheesecake.
They have different personalities. One is chubby, clumsy and admirable. The other is slim, hilarious and loves to declaim. One is obsessed with the color purple and the other is crazy for acetic acid.
Yes, we are weird. But we are friends. Perhaps, they are the best ones I'll ever have.
They say tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are.
I say, do so anytime.
I'll miss you BSN 1B.
(For comments and reactions please send an SMS to 09186363090 or an email to reylangarcia@gmail.com. View my blog at http://www.theyoungvoice.blogspot.com)