Friends For Not Long Enough...

_{George Pak}

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One of the easiest things to do as children is to make friends. This is because we do not have a lot of restrictions like adults when doing so. We don’t have to consider things like character, background, and whatnot before we can consider them as friends. And also, one of the hardest things to do as a child is to lose a friend. This is because when we have a friend, we give our all into it, holding back nothing, so the loss will definitely be painful to us.

No one likes losing a friend, no matter the circumstance. We all wish that our friends will stay with us forever and we would grow old together as well. But then, life happens and we get pulled apart. Next thing we know, we are making new friends and trying to move on with our lives. But we would never forget the memories of that first friend we made.

I am no different from you all. Seeing this topic for today, it was a bit hard for me to think of such a person because to me, most of the friends that mattered, I’m still in contact with them. Even if we don’t talk on a daily basis, I have their contact information and vice versa.

However, I then remembered that there is someone that I lost over years ago and no matter how hard I tried, I’ve never been able to find her again.

I only knew this girl for a year, in fact, it was for less than a year. She enrolled in our school for SS1, but she was in another arm of Science class. I was in SS1A while she was in SS1C, and her name was Sarah. To date, I can’t even remember how we met and started talking seeing how we were in different classes and had nothing in common.

But we hit it off and became really close, we were always spending time together talking and gisting. Thanks to her, my notes were always complete and I never lagged on assignments. There were times when we would get carried away with talks that a teacher would walk into the class and I would have to pretend I was a member of that class, the same thing happened multiple times when she was in my classroom as well.

As people are sure to do, they began to assume that we were dating. But personally, I saw what we had as way more beautiful than dating. We were just free with each other and enjoyed each other’s company a lot. I really believed we would be best of friends until we were done with secondary school.

Well, that hope was dashed when we were preparing for our third-term exams and she told me she would not be returning for SS2. I was surprised of course and asked why, she said she would be moving to Canada.

Yeah, Canada!

Apparently, one of her aunts that lived there had been working a visa for her to come over and it had already clicked, she was scheduled to travel during the long holidays. This news saddened me because I didn’t know how the school will be without her there, but there was nothing I could do to stop her.

Back then, she didn’t have a phone. I don’t think I even had a phone then, but I had a Facebook account already and so did she. So when we got the chance, we chatted and tried to stay in touch during the holidays. And by chance, I mean either we laid our hands on someone’s phone or we went to the cyber café.

I knew the day she left the shores of Nigeria, I wished her luck and hoped she would never forget me. It seems I was already certain I would never forget her as well. Still, we kept in touch, even after school resumed and I went back for SS2. The school was not the same without her, but I was making it work for me.

I lost her during the period I had some issues with my Facebook account and for over two years I couldn’t access it. By the time I managed to get it back, I tried looking for our old chats, but I couldn’t find them. I searched for her profile and I couldn’t find her either. I even went to the point of using someone else’s account to search her profile and it still came up empty.

And that was how I lost her. And while I’ve moved on since then, I’ve never really been able to forget her just yet. Even now, I don’t remember her surname, just her first name. And as it stands, I know that she would be a woman by now and I might not even be able to recognize her if I see her. But if I did have the chance to see her again, then I would definitely do that.

We have quite a lot to talk about.

_{Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below, I would love to know what you’re thinking. Till we meet in the next post.}

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_{This post is inspired by the first topic of this week which is Lost Childhood Friends. Feel free to try it out.}

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