I thought I was bad at building genuine connections with people till the day I met Jessica, they say real friends are hard to come by, or should I rephrase it, "genuine friends are hard to find," and when you have one, you have to guide it with all jealousy. Jessica came into my life at the lowest moment when I was faced with certain challenges that I thought I couldn't overcome.
I can still remember the first words she said to me that faithful day. I remember that beautiful smile that enveloped her face, making her full cheeks fold, thereby creating a magical hole called "dimples".
How it all started: Growing up, I never really had friends; well, I have my reasons if you ask me. I had this mindset that friends would influence you from being this obedient child to something you can't imagine on a normal day. "Yeah!" You read right. And often, my sister's friends would come to the house, invading her privacy without her permission; whenever they came around, the whole house would be so noisy, like a marketplace. I hated that noise, and it made me feel uncomfortable in my comfort zone, so that's one reason I never had friends during the teenage phase of my life.
Fortunately, my long-awaited admission into the higher institution came, and I was all prepared; Mum assisted in getting my stuff ready, and I moved to the park and boarded a transit vehicle, and that was how I found myself in school. Resuming lectures the following day, I wrote down my to-do list and promised myself I was never gonna engage in any activity that wasn't on my list, and one was making friends. I was already prepared to live an isolated life where I got to focus on classes and my well-being.
One faithful day, I was rushing to class when it started raining heavily on my way, and I was stranded standing under a shield when someone stood in front of me with an umbrella.
"Where are you headed?" The stranger asked.
"I'm going to class," I replied with a little anger because the rain had ruined the beautiful hair I made the previous day.
"Is it very far from here? Well, if it isn't, you can join me under my umbrella, so we can go together," the stranger said politely.
I wouldn't want to reject such a nice offer, and besides, it's coming from the same gender, so why not? On our way we started engaging in conversations, thereby leading to knowing ourselves more. I got to my stop point and said thank you with a weird smile on my face. Then she continued the journey to her destination.
After my classes for the day, I was heading home when I bumped into her again, and this time around, I didn't say the word "stranger." I said her name, "Jessica," and we exchanged pleasantries. From that moment, one thing led to another, and we ended up exchanging contacts as well.
As time went by, we started calling each other and texting on the phone, we would stroll to school in the night to go read our books. There was a day she asked for my house address, and I gave it to her because I knew she wasn't gonna invade my space any time she liked. Well "I was wrong." One cozy evening, I was at home doing practically nothing when I heard a knock on the door. I was a bit surprised because no one had visited me before except my neighbors, but then this particular knock sounded different.
I stood up from the bed to answer who it was and when I opened the door, "Guess who it was?" Well, I think you know already, it was my friend "Jessica", yeah! I said, my friend. From that moment I realized how amazing she was and how I wanted her invading my privacy often. She became my comfort zone, and I didn't want to leave that zone, our connection grew deep.
A few days later, I was down healthwise and couldn't engage myself in anything; Jessica came over to my place and stayed with me for some days, skipping classes. She portrayed what true friendship is, and she made me believe in friendship.
One thing that attracted her more to me was her listening nature; no matter the rubbish I had to say, she'd always listen to it and make her little contributions if necessary, whenever I won, the excitement on her face made it feel like she won as well.
I know someday we will grow up and are likely to grow apart, but then my friendship with Jessica has tested time and distance; even when we are far apart, our bond feels like we are present with each other. We would talk on the phone for hours and never get tired, we never run out of topics to talk about.
I'm gonna proudly call Jessica "my perfect match made in heaven" because with her, I feel a genuine connection, and I have a built my wall around her.
Nothing feels better than having genuine friends who are always ready to support us....
true friendship still exists, unfortunately, time and distance is a factor that affect it, you and Jessica might not lose the affection you have for each other but after school, i mean when you graduate, the communication will be less and both of you will make new friends too but then.... Enjoy the moment😃
Yeah!! That part I get, but then deep down, I don't want it to get to that level though.
Hello @young-tari,
Your image source link doesn't lead anywhere. Where did you get this image?
I got it from pixabay. I've also tried opening it again, but it isn't taking me anywhere.
@theinkwell I've recopied the link.