FRIENDS IN THE CHAPTERS

This blog post was triggered by a comment. “Dara, fun as always, I have missed you.” Immediately I read those words, I just had a flashback and an epiphany at once. I remembered how far I and this person have come. We’ve almost gone the whole nine yards (why do they say nine yards again?).

Anyways, I remembered specifically how this person has seen me through certain phases of my life past and immediate especially moving to a new country, the first few days, to the summer, then autumn, winter and now almost spring.

The thought had not finished forming in my head when I got on the phone with another friend. As we discussed her wedding preparation and how she is going with an entirely different colour for her big day than I thought she’d be wearing. I found it important to mention to her how through our friendship as undergraduates, this was the future we were talking about and somehow here we were in that future real, changed, yet fitting.

Apparently, we grow into the future. It was surreal for me to think and vocalize these thoughts because it felt like Deja Vu even though I am pretty sure we had never lived these moments. This was truly the future we spoke about but the future felt familiar, it was a destination we wanted to reach. When we spoke of it, we did not even know that it would become an ordinary everyday context so peculiar to our new station in life that we are already crafting a new future, envisioning another tomorrow.

There are literally people who do life with you. We spend time focused on the “one” that we actually forget the “ones” none is more important than the other. Think about the teachers that saw you from kindergarten till high school. Think about colleagues who knew you as a teenager, people who knew you as an undergraduate, people who knew you as a broke person, and people who knew you before you started taking yourself seriously.

Imagine the lens through which your parents see you. Imagine that they watched you through diaper change till you actually started making babies of your own or even thinking about it. Imagine that they actually saw you through your first sneeze, let’s not talk about poo.

In essence, we are all mirrors. we are reflected in the lives of others even as we live our lives. Think of it as a prism, a kaleidoscope if you wish. Think of it as a room full of mirrors. We watch people come and go. Some actively, some more than others, some flash by and some are observed but that is the beauty of our existence, the many lives that pass through ours and the many witnesses that watch us live.

It is funny we never make much of it. I mean do you think about the market woman you bought groceries from or the jeweler who sold you your wedding ring, the nurse who handed you your baby, the doctor that first diagnosed your child, the teacher that was present on your first day of school? yet, these people are a passive part of our lives. Our lives have touched theirs somehow. It is the mundane things, the person who searched you at the airport, the first person to smile at you in a new city or country you moved to but the significant memories are the friends that come with us through seasons at least that is what this post is about.

To my friends, past, present, and future, the sparks and colours of life. To the friends I reflect in their lives and who reflect in mine. The friends in each chapter, the ones I want to forget in a hurry and the ones I always want to remember, this is an acknowledgement. It is more than a thank-you award. You are literally the lives that see mine closely.

From the memories that were once dreams to the memories I am looking forward to making, the ones that lead me to memories I did not even envisage making. The serendipity, the little broken moments that felt like pause but were all a part of the plot. To friends in the journey, even random people that share my life even as we all journey.

This is just about the chapters, the open chapters, the ones we read every day from people we come across without even knowing that we are minor or major characters in their plays it is even wild with social media. This really is a subtle reminder to honour the people in the chapters, especially friends that stick.

Cheers to life, love, and friendships 🥂