The first day of school on my junior year was an odd one. School began on a Wednesday, I don’t remember why exactly I know it involved politics and our shitty president, nothing unusual. I remember being angry but excited to finally wear my new uniform. That year I had to buy my school supplies in Venezuela because my annual summer trip to the US was not until the following week. I had nothing new or exciting to presume around. I know, I was a little brat.
At school nothing too interesting happened. I sat with the same group of friends even when I was tired of them. I tried hard to be who everyone wanted me to be but as the years past by I cared less about pretending. My school was the same old thing, plain walls with cheap paint, wood doors, a gigantic room with no A/C, rows with old wood desks and a blackboard in the front. The only difference that year was the new color of the uniforms that represented our status as juniors and the 3 new girls. That’s when I probable met Kate, I mean that day, but I can’t remember. I didn’t care for the new people, I didn’t want to deal with new friends because I had enough with my old ones. Stupid me.
Naturally classes were cancelled after that 1 random first day. When we came back to school for real Kate was sick, she had something I don’t even remember and I don’t even know how long it took her to be back to school. She was part of my physic workshop, I hated the idea because she looked bad in physics. Yes, I was judging her and funny enough I don’t know if she is good in physics, I never figured it out! One thing for sure, she told me that she tried to talk to me about the project but I ignored her, I don’t even remember her trying to talk to me but then again I can be self-centered sometimes. We eventually stopped being in the same physics group. I never used her part of the homework, I always did everything myself and submitted that because I didn’t trust anyone in the group.
At the time I was bestfriend with two girls, Rose and Sophie (no the real names). Before that year, I was mostly the outsider in the friendship when it came to hang out, I was always busy with my music education or I didn’t care about their interest on boys and drama. I wanted to be as far as possible from teenage drama even when drama usually followed me around. By the end of the previous school year, I was getting closer to both Rose and Sophie, they expended more time hanging out at my house, less time with teenage drama and even more time eating brownies at 2am.
Going back to “how I met my best friend” story, Rose was actually the one who introduced us properly. I remember Rose started to be a reader a couple of months earlier and after that we shared books frequently. The point is, one day Rose told me about this series she started reading because of the new girl, and then she made Kate talk to me about it. They basically told me the whole plot but I was sold, after I read the first book, Hush-Hush, I started to trust the new girl. I guess sharing love for the same type of books united us somehow. At the beginning she was closer to Rose, she barely interacted with Sophie (which she later confessed to feel replaced by Kate at the start of our friendship) and we were close enough to talk about books.
Again, the whole story is kinda blurry. We started texting and talking about books, we had a weird friendship. We didn’t started being proper friends until she went to my house for a sleepover, I guess sleeping in a twin size bed together dragged us closer, literally and figuratively. Kate was easy to talk with, we shared interests and we even shared more personal struggles.I am pretty sure that Kate judged me as well, I was never sure of the friendship until we started to talked about our problems in common. She visited often my house, and by the end of the school year I felt closer to her than any other friend. Also, Sophie started to be closer to her as well. It was a weird 4 friends because at any point it felt like one of us was out.
That summer we kept in touch, still hang out even when I barely expend time in the country, I was between countries. First, I was in the US for our usual summer vacations spot, then Colombia where my sister started college for a while, and finally back in the US where my sister finally found her final college place. I missed the first week of classes of my senior year, Kate missed her as well because she was waiting for me to be back from the US.
By my senior year of high school I knew that I was leaving the country to study in the US with my sister. I wanted to stop being friend with anyone relative knew in my life. I barely understood Kate or knew her, so by my second semester I started drifting apart. There was too much going on with myself, my future, and even when school projects. I was overwhelmed. When it came to books I talked more with Rose, she also started to expended even more time at my house but I stopped feeling like we were friends at some point although I didn’t want to accept it. Sophie started to be the one who was with me during the whole time, she basically lived with me. Kate was still there but we were in between ups and downs. We enjoyed a lot together even when I was a bad human being trying to stop attachments.
I lost a lot of classes that year as well. There was protests around the country, classes were not mandatory at some point, I took advantage of that by missing way too many days of school. I actually didn’t care much about school that year, even less when I got accepted in my college of choice in the US. By the third semester we started to be back to our old selves, being together frequently and everything. Kate expended so much time at my house that my parents treat her like a daughter. That year in general, our group friend started to hang out so much more. That’s something I will always remember, the fun we had that year with everyone. By the end of my senior year, most of my books recommendation came from Kate and she became one of my top friends. By the end of that year, I didn’t feel like I was trapped in the wrong group friend faking to be happy because I actually felt welcome for who I was as a person.
I left the country on August that year, Kate and Sophie were with me the whole time. Rose stopped being my friend after graduation but Kate and Sophie studded by my side, they kept supporting me. Also, Kate and I talked about our issues out, we were better friends after that. Kate packed my bags, she helped me moved my life to a different country. We said goodbye until October when I came back for some paperwork, she stayed with me that whole week that I was back, my parents even had to drop her before taking me to the airport. That was the last time we saw each other but it wasn’t the last time we talked because we still talk almost everyday, my life wouldn’t be the same without her.
Here is the true: It is hard to keep a friendship when you don’t see each other at all because sometimes it can feel like it’s a friendship with your memories. It is hard for me, personally, to realize how different everything can be in 3 and a half years, how I had changed completely and how she probably changed as well. Sometimes it can feel like you being judge for the person you used to be, your old beliefs, and you can see yourself doing the same. Yet, I wouldn’t change it. I never thought that I will have a friend for this long or this way. Yes, it’s weird but I guess we make it work. Even when we don’t feel like talking we still communicate to say “I’m alive” which is great to hear. I am glad that we make it work, we still share books, she still visits my mom back in my native country and we send each other gifts. Overall, the most important part is that we still get each other even when it’s challenging. That’s pretty much why we decided to start a blog because we wanted to put down our shared interest, to have something from us to give the world. I know, cheesy.
Now, I don’t have much more to say. That’s how we met, how we became friends and a little more of background information. Hopefully Kate will be okay with this little story time and hope you are not confused about it.
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