Catching Up

Seeing an old friend after not seeing each other for a long time is one of life’s greatest joys. You love those warm tight hugs you give each other as soon as you finally meet. You also noticed those little things that changed in her physical appearance, like how she grew an inch taller, or like how she dyed her hair to a certain color. You just wanted a moment to let it all sink in, and you realize how much things have changed since the last time you saw her. But the best part of it all is catching up; you’ve got a lot to tell to each other.

  You look for a place to eat so you could just sit and chill while you talk about each other’s lives. She talks about her schoolmates and how some of them remind her of our other friends. She mentions one of her schoolmates and talks about how much she dislikes her. She also talks about her funny moments in school and you laugh along with her as you imagined the scenario she just described. And she slightly blushes as she talks about the person she likes.

  It was your turn to do the talking. You talked about the same things. You’re slightly amazed at the fact that despite how much things have changed, some things still remain the same. There were no awkward moments between the two of you. Both of you talked and acted as if you see each other everyday and do all the things you usually do, just like the old times.

Sometimes, when we’re away from a person for too long, we tend to become distant from her. Things would become awkward when you meet them again. And at one point, you would even stop talking with each other as if you didn’t treat each other like siblings before. But if you’re really close with someone, no matter how long you were away from each other and no matter how far away you were from each other, things would still be the same between the two of you. After catching up, you would look forward to meeting each other again just like you always do.

Misunderstanding

  We encounter a lot of misunderstanding with our friends, family and even strangers. It’s easy to misunderstand people, and we also get misunderstood easily too. But what’s hard is actually trying to understand that person and find out the reason behind her actions. People sometimes do things that seem wrong or offensive for us. When we’re having a misunderstanding with someone, it tends to become awkward between the two of you; hence it gets even harder to reach out.

No matter how close you are with a person, if you get offended, you distance yourself from her. You expect her to apologize to you, and if she doesn’t you become more aggravated. But you should also know that apologizing isn’t always easy, because fear is present. Fear that you might not accept the apology or that maybe you would go berserk as she apologizes. This would lead to another misunderstanding and the first one hasn’t even been resolved yet.

  When you’re really good friends with someone, you wouldn’t let a little misunderstanding ruin your friendship. Even if you’re the one who was offended, you should also try to reach out and meet each other halfway. You tell her what she did hurt you and make her understand why you reacted that way. And she will tell you her side of the story. You will then find out that you weren’t the only one who was greatly affected by the situation.

You finally understand why she said what she said, and did what she did. You finally understand why it took her some time to apologize. And now, she also understands why you were offended by what she did. The two of you put it behind you and see it as a test of your friendship. Misunderstandings are bound to happen between friends, but a real friendship can never be wrecked by one.

Fragile

          It’s a normal day; you do your usual routine and head to school. As you were going about your day, you hear something that kills you inside and have to pretend that you’re fine. You try to hold back your tears from falling and try your best to smile despite that stinging feeling in your chest. Finishing the day is the only thing you have in mind right now. But time seems to play a sick joke on you by going slower.

          You try to distract yourself by reading or studying. But you can’t seem to concentrate. You try to text your friends from another school but they didn’t reply to your texts. They might be busy since it’s obviously a school day. You feel hopeless at this point and you’re just really hanging by a thread as you keep yourself from breaking down.

          People around you don’t seem to notice your façade. You see that as a good thing so as not to answer any questions or face any confrontations. Until one person asks you if you’re okay and the wall you’ve been building slowly crumbles down. Your eyes become watery again but you can’t stop them this time since they’ve turned into tears as they fall from your eyes. Your friend tries to comfort you as you sob on her shoulders.

          You composed yourself as your friend patiently waits for you to tell her what’s wrong. As you were telling her everything, your eyes begin to water again. She comforts you and gives you advice and you’re glad she’s able to understand what you’re trying to say. It feels good to vent out all your bottled up emotions and have someone to listen and understand you. But at the end of the day, when you’re all alone laying in bed, all the pain comes back and you have nothing else to do but cry yourself to sleep.

Nostalgia

          The feeling of longing for the past, that feeling called nostalgia. You just sit there reminiscing about your past experiences and what kind of person you were before and the people you used to spend so much time with. You see one thing and you remember a whole lot of things from it. You smile from the thought of those memories. You close your eyes and continue reminiscing; the kind in which you lose track of time and world around just seems to dissolve.

          One of the most common things that make us nostalgic is seeing kids playing outside.  You see those kids playing in the dirt and laughing like they’re only problem in the world is getting scolded for being so dirty. Then you think about the times when you used to do those things too. You missed those times when you pretend to sleep when your mother walks into your room to check on you.  You missed those times when you sleep on the couch and you wake up on your bed.

          On other times, you see your old friends and classmates and you missed those times when you were all together. You missed those times when all of you were in one class. Those times when you get to see them everyday at school and help each other out with your assignments. And those times when you could actually call them your second family. All you could think about now is how time flies, and how much things changed since then.

          But you’re all grown up now. You’re finally in college dealing with the real problems in life. You ask yourself why you wanted to grow up so fast before. Now that you’re finally facing the real world, you can’t help but wish we could go back to being kids or to being in high school where things were so much easier. There’s no point in looking back though, you need to continue moving forward and work hard for the sake of your future.

Sleepover

          Sleepover is one of the best things you’ll experience in your youth. I’m lucky enough that my parents trust me and allow me to sleep over at my friend’s house. The usual things we do when we’re having a sleepover are movie marathon, eat all we can, and talk about anything. Most of the times though, the movie marathon turns into a one movie show. And sometimes, there are a lot of excess foods. 

           One of the best things during sleepovers though is the late night conversation. I somehow think that at night, our brains tend to become more alert and keener to keep the conversation going. During this time, I would get to have a heart to heart talk with my friend and I will know more about what’s going on in her mind. My friend would pour out all her frustrations and worries during the day and I do the same. It can be very refreshing, to have someone open up to you about their problems and at the same time, listen to your problems as well.

           Time flies when you’re having a great time, you wouldn’t notice the time you spent talking with each other. The next thing I know is we both have fallen asleep and I can’t remember when and how. By the time we wake up, it’s almost noon. My stomach doesn’t feel so good from all the excessive eating last night and my head is pounding from lack of sleep due to our heart to heart talk late at night. But for me, all of it was worth it.

           For some, it may be just a mere sleepover, a typical spend-the-night-at-a-friend’s-house. But for me, it’s more than that. Spending a night with your friends can be one of the best ways to strengthen your friendship. This is when you can actually talk about the stuff that matters. Stuffs that would make you think why you were friends with them in the first place.  

Left Out

          You walk into a room full of people chatting with their friends and going about their normal lives. Looking for a seat wasn’t easy because of the people filling almost every space of the room; you finally spot one at the far end corner. You make your way towards the corner of the room, squeezing through the group of people catching up with their old friends and other people making new friends. When you’ve finally reached your seat, you heaved a sigh of relief and sat down. You scan your bag for your phone along with your earphones and plugged them in your ears, drowning the chattering voices with the music.

          You scroll through your phone so as to appear busy and to not look so awkward sitting there alone. Then there’s this sudden feeling that makes you think you might be making a bad impression of yourself to everyone. You’re scare that everyone would think you’re a total snob so you take off your earphones for a while and wait for someone to approach you first. A sudden rush of excitement overtakes your nervousness when someone takes the seat next to you and greets you with a smile. You asked for her name in the hopes of starting a new friendship.

          Asking for someone’s name might be easy, but starting a conversation isn’t, let alone keep conversations going. You go through your mind searching for possible topics you can talk about. When you’ve finally thought of a good one, you start of by asking a question, she answers with a smile, but her smile becomes brighter when she sees her old friends in the room. Just when you thought you’ve finally made a friend, you’re left along again. So you plugged in your earphones once more and detach yourself from the real world.

          The day went by in a blink of an eye, there was a slight commotion as everyone rose from their seats to leave the room. As you finished gathering your things, the room was almost empty. The sky was a bright orange when you left the building. By the time you reached home, it was already dark. After having a quick dinner and changing into your pajamas, you jump on your bed, closed your eyes and silently praying that tomorrow would be a better day before finally falling asleep.

Overthinking

          There are times when you just seem to lay in bed for what feels like an eternity. You just lay there staring blankly at the ceiling and the mind does all the work. Things that you’ve been trying to block in your mind are now making its way back. You try to close your eyes in the hopes that you’ll be able to fall asleep and your thoughts will drown in your dream. But it’s almost impossible and you find yourself tossing and turning in bed.

         You get out of bed and grab a glass of water or milk that may help you in falling asleep. For some people though, they might be too lazy to get up because the kitchen is too far away or they might be too scared to walk into a dark kitchen. But either way, nothing seems to help you. You become more frustrated as the seconds turn to minutes and the minutes turn to hours. You sigh in defeat as you lay there with nothing but your thoughts.

         You wake up the next day with dark circles below your eyes due to lack of sleep. Starting the day with your usual routine and you feel like your thoughts won’t haunt you during daylight. But you may have spoken to soon as you get into the shower. What was supposed to be a quick shower turned into a life contemplating moment. You just sit there with the water running down you body.

         We do a lot of overthinking everyday. But is it really helpful? Sometimes when we overthink, we create a problem that’s not even there in the first place, we tend to complicate things when the answer is actually so simple. It distracts us from what’s actually more important. It’s not bad to overthink because we can see and understand more things behind something, but too much overthinking kills us mentally which is actually worst than dying physically.

Invisible

        If you were given a chance to have one super power, what would it be? Most of us would answer invisibility. Some of us would even say that they already have the power of invisibility, at least not literally. In Skylar Grey’s song entitled Invisible, it describes how a person does everything to be noticed but still feels like she’s invisible. Have you ever felt invisible?

        “I take these pills, to make me thin. I dye my hair, and cut my skin.” We do things to make other people notice us, sometimes it reaches to the point wherein we abuse ourselves to change the way we look.  “I tried everything, to make them see me, but all they see is someone that’s not me.” We try to be ourselves, and yet people still judge us. We are bound to be misunderstood by some, because we can never please everyone. And sometimes, when we do things to please others, we lose ourselves on the process. We want people to see the real us, but then they see someone else.

        “Here inside, my quiet hell you cannot hear my cries for help.” It’s like we’re screaming but no one can hear us. We want to tell the world how we feel and who we are, but they hear something else. We care too much about what other people think of us. At the end of the day, we go back to that secure place called loneliness, where it’s just you and your thoughts and no one else around you. But still, we long for their acceptance and so this place called loneliness becomes a hell-like place.

         “Sometimes, when I’m alone I pretend that I’m a queen. It’s almost believable.” When we can’t beat others into accepting us, we tend to create our own world wherein we’re the queen or king. It almost seems real to us, but we know deep down that it’s not. This song is indeed a very depressing song, but I can somehow relate to it. And I know that a lot of people can also relate to this since this is one of the most common issues today. I hope that someday, we’ll be able to learn how to embrace who we really are and all it takes is the right person to accept that.

You can listen to the song here.