Somewhere along the way, I stumbled into my best friend when we were both 19.
19 is a young age, but old enough for one’s character and personality to be more or less finalised. Every baby is born a clean slate, but over the years human interaction with those around them, like permanent ink on a sheet of plain paper, shapes every individual differently from one another. Everyone has different experiences, cultures, opinions, habits, and beliefs. And it is this combination of everything; the bits and pieces of one’s childhood, that forms one whole concrete picture that is one’s adulthood. Like a finalised painting after many, many, strokes of the brush.
My best friend and I clicked like the perfect puzzle piece. We started off as strangers from vastly different backgrounds, but all of our differences and jagged edges fit right in with each other so snugly, like a perfectly fitting shoe. And how rare is that to find, a perfect puzzle piece, when no two people are the same?
I know full well the people who have crafted me from childhood until now, those who created my puzzle piece. Those who have shaped me uniquely me, complete with influencing my set of beliefs, opinions, character and personality.
And which other group of people had shaped and influenced my best friend? Which other group of people had walked with my best friend way before I did, such that we clicked so effortlessly?
Everyone is a mirror of those who have walked with them. However you think of me, reflects about those who have been critical to my growing up. And for me, it’s always rather intimidating to come to see these mirrors, regardless your own or someone else’s. Had these mirrors not reflected, I wouldn’t be me, and you wouldn’t be you.
Today I met my best friend’s mirrors, those who have walked with her longer in years than I have in months. It was an incredible honour, but it was also a surge of emotions. I saw so many aspects of my best friend in another person—a stranger, to me. These mirrors of my best friend are complete strangers to me. But complete strangers come together and form an inseparable person.
I hear stories of my best friend when she was at an age that now seemed too distant for me. What would I have done if I met my best friend when we were 7 instead of 19? These would only be hypothetical questions, but they invoke so much pondering.
How? Where? What? Why? How? Am I trying too hard? Why do I feel this way? Is anyone even relating to this at all? What does my best friend think of this post?
Humans are weird and I don’t deny one bit of it. And language is more powerful now than it has ever been, but today I feel like I’ve done a poor job in relaying my emotions in this blog post. I feel like I’ve not said anything very meaningful at all, and I’m not sure if anyone will understand, much less relate to me. I take a lot of pride in my writing, but I’ve utterly failed in this post at trying to relay the storm in my head.
Perhaps, either it is not meant to be relayed, or only those with puzzle pieces that complement mine shall understand me.
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