I read a card the other day that said: 'Don't count your age, but count your friends' (or something to that effect). Okay, it was a card for friend that was celebrating a birthday and I signed in. Those words actually made me think deeply and count my friends. I came up with just a handful of true blue 'best' friends. Does that mean that I haven't really lived my life at all? Wasn't I friendly enough?
Maybe they are not much, but they truly are the best among the bunch. Different personalities, convictions, morals, religions – they are the Motley Crue. No, they don't know each other, because they all came from different groups I have met as I go along this path in life.
I've got those whom I have met in my toddler years and we are still in touch with each other. They have seen me without a chest, in my undies, running in the rain, and with those icky hairstyles. We grew up together, had our crushes together, shared our dreams together, and fell in love together. First, there was the three of us; from age three to until age 9. Then, we became five from age 9 until now. We went our separate ways when it was time to enter our college years (I got out first, since we move to Palawan when I was on my third year in high school); five girls, five different courses (Nursing, Medicine, Zoology, Metallurgy, and Comp Science), and five different universities (Holy Trinity, UST, UP Los Baños, UP Diliman, and DLSU); just imagine how we got together during school breaks. Now, we are spread in four countries: US, UK, Singapore and the good old beloved Philippines. I were hoping that we would to see each other again when the doctor who's working in London gets married next year.
I earned friends when we moved to Palawan but the last time I saw them all was at out high school graduation. I hang around a bunch of Filipino-Chinese girls when I was in the university but we said our goodbyes, too, after the graduation ceremony. Then, I joined the work force and that was when I met friends at my prime years (still on it). They have seen me struggling – trying to make a name for myself – carving a niche that was all my own. They have seen me at my worst and also witnessed my triumphs. These are the people who are now at my side, some I have left in my old jobs and some I am working with now.
Friends had come and gone, but I'll cherish them all forever. As for those who have stayed, receive my hugs filled with warmth together with a whispered 'thank you'. For those celebrating their birthdays in the next few days:
Thank you for filling my world with laughter and happiness
Thank you for being there in my sorrow and tribulations
Thank you for sharing a bit of your life with me and taking a bit of my life with you
Thank you for the blessing of friendship
Thank you for just being there.
Friendship needs no words – it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness. – Dag Hammarskjold
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