Friends and Memories

Aileen was my best friend in grade school. If my memory serves me right, we were classmates in Grade One or Grade Three. Like most little children, we spent time in school and in between we exchanged stories, giggled, played, and ate snacks during recess. One time, we even hid in the classroom closet to share stories. And when I was sick, I wrote a prayer to God asking, "God, I want to see Aileen."

After I finished Grade Three, I moved to another school and I haven't seen nor heard from her since then. But decades later, whenever I'm asked who my best friend was when I was in Grade One, I would easily recall her name. 

I'm sure you would agree that friends are God's gifts. God gave me an Aileen when I was very young and carefree. As I grew older, God sent Teresa, Gay, Betchy, Sorcky and many others. Then I met Marlon, Eric, Dong and several more. Louie, Cristy, Ranie and Anthony came along later on. If I mention all my gifts I might bore you because I know you're also eager to share your own list of precious gifts--your friends. 

True friends are gifts because they keep us company in our journey through life. They're there when we're happy and when we're sad. They're there to share with us the joy of winning and the pain of losing. By spending time with us in the seasons of our life, our friends create with us wonderful memories. Thank God for social networking sites, we can reconnect with out friends from the past, relive our times together and stay current with each other's status. But even if our best friend from Grade One or Grade Three doesn't have a
Facebook account, we can draw from our memory bank and recall our happy times. 

David Brenner once said, "Friends are the most important part of your life. Treasure the tears, treasure the laughter, but most importantly, treasure the memories." Thank God for our friends. Thank God for the memories. 

My latest book Add Mo 'Ko as Friend: Your Link to Real Relationships explores online and offline friendships. Get your copy from OMF Lit Book Shops and online store, PCBS, National Book Stores and anywhere inspirational books are sold in the Philippines.