Friends???

The day I entered my degree college, I knew it was never going to be the same again. School life was already on the list of my past, already the thing I missed the most!

 I would boast to everyone, how my school was the best and how I had the best of friends and the best of time! Well, I wasn’t the only one with the feeling. Everyone had some best teachers, some funny teachers and some totally weird ones to laugh at. Nobody was without a best friend and no one was without a funny tale to tell. After all, you spend 10 years of your life at a place where you grow up with people your age, you are bound to make great friends and long lasting impressions on your personalities.

But little did I know, that I had now entered the arena of college life which had even more to offer than I could have imagined in my school. The freedom of thoughts, the zeal and passion of youth and tremendous scope of dreams makes this time the best time of your life.

The stage is all set for you, but you are still the background actor, not ready to come out in the open. However, once you do, there is no stopping and your world becomes the play you designed for yourself.

Every class you bunked, every night you burned your midnight oil to study , every trip you went with your friends and every exam you failed!- makes unforgettable memories. It creates stories for you to laugh at, stories to tell your grandchildren and stories to teach you something in your adult life.

It is a special time in your life when you do not know what it means to be ‘Busy at work’ or ‘saving for children’s future’ or may be ‘cooking extra meal for the dinner to save up for tomorrow’s lunch box’. Yet, you dare to dream of the future full of possibilities, full of sun, full of luxury and the important one- full of friends!

You are strong, positive, and energetic and like a sponge- ready to absorb all the information that comes your way. Calling your friends at 1 A.M. is as normal as asking them to help you impress a boy you like! You rely on them to complete your assignment and even to decide your future career strategy.

Nobody judges you for not waking up at 6 AM or not looking your perfect self or not planning every single day to fit all the pending works!

Until, you step into the next stage of life- work life!

 It’s been almost 10 years, since I left my college. I am now well settled with my husband and toddler, juggling between usual house work, office work and baby work. The one thing that I miss the most in my life- u guessed it right- my college life!

Forget calling friends at 1 AM, now I have to think twice before calling at 10 in the night. The routine of life that sucks you into its cycle makes you a slave of time. You sleep early coz you wake up early and that’s the only way to achieve all the little things that make up a standard work day in an adult’s life!

I wish I could ask someone to complete my cooking assignment someday, but alas, that is out of option, for 2 reason. First, I will be utterly embarrassed to do so and secondly they would be absolutely clueless in my kitchen.

And you say, ‘I can talk about boys!’ with them- well, that will only happen if we will ever have time to talk anything other than our kids and ever have a will to discuss the rival gender who has put us in this situation in the first place!

 The friendship that I share now, is very smooth, decent and sophisticated.  No fights and no bickering. No meeting without invitation and no eating without insistence. I wonder, if I really am the same person?

But there are still moments of happiness, moments of sharing common grief and all that is achieved through the means of friendship- just in a more adult way!  We still go to trips (family picnics), still have late night parties (at home with our baby monitors in hand) and still look good (just not thin)!

I know what I have is precious, it is still very dear to me and still very pure.  Just like the transformation of energy from one form to another, Friendship too changes from one form to another. It grows from teenage to adult and then to old. Friendships truly reflect our personalities.

Although, when I do meet my old friends I turn into that college kid I left 10 years ago and just talk about anything under the sun. The boundlessness of that relation, makes you realize how far you have come. Bonds that are once made remain in the same way whether you become 20 or 50. The new bonds though, have to take on the new form and new meaning. It is just the way it is. Every friendship made at a particular stage of your life demands a certain type of relation pertaining to your age. And from there on, it remains the same no matter how old you grow.

I am sure, when I will turn 50, I will still have friends. We will meet at social events and complain about our disobedient teenage children or their respective girl/boy friends. We will still have our share of laugh and we will still miss the friendships of the past!