And the friends come, and the friends go, and just some of them stay. . .

Four years in the same high school. Four years with the same people. For years sharing fun moments, stories, beginning of love stories, the ending of them, parties, sharing everything like any other teenager. She shared so much with them, that this little group, which was formed of four other girls, become so close and after a while, they were like a family she chose by herself.

Beginning the first year she was still careful with the people, because she did not know them. By the second year, they would go out almost every weekend and they will create beautiful memories.

Everyone with their little teenager’s drama, falling in love with the wrong person and when realizing this, thinking that is the end of the world. Telling little lies to their parents so they can go out as much as possible, skipping school every now and then and going out to have drinks. Which teenager has not done this?

She was living with one of her sisters at that time. Of course, she was behaving like a parent towards her, controlling every move she made. Making sure she was doing her homework, making sure she was not skipping school, making sure she was not getting herself into trouble.

She was doing her best. And even if in that time she was rebellious and did not understand her sister and her behavior, nowadays she fully understands her position. She had an enormous responsibility. Even though she was the type of girl that will be good in school without any need to learn too much.

So, the four years already passed by and after that, everyone followed a different direction in life. After spending so much time together, their ways separated. She moved to Spain, another one moved to Italy, and the rest of them went to different universities in different cities.

Arriving to Spain and suddenly be without friends was extremely hard for her. Be obligated by the circumstances to grow up in a few months. In the beginning she was thinking that she will not need new friends because most of her time meant just working. But what is this life without friends? What is this life, when you feel sad or you feel the need to talk to someone, to cry on someone’s shoulder and you do not have anyone to call?

With the time she will become emotionally stronger and she will manage without, but she was still a little girl, far away from her home country and far away from all the people she had known her whole life.

Her best friends, the people that saw her smile and cry, dance and laugh, happy and sad, were there in the beginning, talking regularly but later, was just once per week. Later on, it become just once per month, and later on was just for Christmas, Easter and birthdays. And the stories were not much to tell, there was not much to share because they were not sharing the same environment anymore, they had different routine. The weeks had passed by, and the months also passed by, and then even the years. And she missed them a lot. And they grew up and they grew apart.

With the time she managed to meet new people and to start sharing and showing herself how she was. It is impossible not to get to know people when you live in a small city. With the time, she realized that you need to be careful in choosing the people you want to have in your life because not everyone is genuine. She was observing how many friendships were based on lies, how many relationships were based on lies, how even her own relationship was based on a lie. This will discover years later.

She will discover how quick someone can be your best friend and how easy this will end; how quick people will change their opinion about someone and today be talking bad about a person and tomorrow be best friends.

One thing she will also learn with the time is that the quantity is not important but what kind of people you have next to you and if you can show yourself how you are as a person, with pros and contras, and not to pretend to be someone just to be liked.

But when someone is supposed to be in your life, even if one year, or two or three passed by already, that person is still there. She will have the chance to go back on holiday and see that person again, that one person which in a distant pass was part of her life, and it feels like being again in high school, it feels like being again a kid with no worries, with no bills to pay or no responsibilities.

They will still be there and it does not matter how much time already passed, even if is nine years, when you see that beloved person is like travelling to the past: the same connections, the same jokes, the same craziness and the same love and respect.

Are friends those that are travelling thousands of kilometers to come to see you, are those people that will come to pick you up at the airport. Are those people that will help you with the suitcases in the middle of the night, they will offer their house and bed, they will call their boyfriend in the morning to bring you to the train station. Are those friends who will wait impatient to arrive at their house after a long journey, those that are sharing their friends with you and will try to show you their new hometown. Are those friends that will come to party with you even if they have worked the whole day and they need to work on next one, because they know you are there just for one weekend, those friends who will tell you the truth and not only the things you want to hear, those friends that will be themselves in front of you, even if is the hardest thing to do sometimes: BE YOU.

I am here right now, enjoying a quiet night on the balcony. I decided the late night to write this time. The neighbors already went to sleep so I just hear the cars passing by and the airplanes arriving and departing, and I enjoy this kind of silence in the middle of the night.

I realized that no matter where you go, how many countries you change to, how many years will pass by, the people that you need to have in your life you will have them.

And even if you do not talk every day, or every week, not even every month, but whenever you talk to them or you manage to visit them, in those moments you can be yourself, and they can be themselves, and you will travel together through the memories to a nice pass that you once shared. Those people will always be remained settled in your heart.

And what about you? How your friendships survive?

Version in Spanish: https://journeywithmada.com/historia-nr-7/

Version in Romanian: https://journeywithmada.com/povestea-nr-7/