2. The best friends I've had over the years

(Correction to my 15 facts post! I had braces when I was 12!!! Took them out in March '08)

Hard. I don't put friends into a category called "Best". Best is vague, and best sounds competitive. Exclusive. Not for friends. Closest friends sounds more friendly.

School friends

Lydia, the one kindergarten friend I was close to. We played at each other's houses. I remember going to her house - a lot of white, I think it was some really nice condo - and when we were going down to go play, her grandfather (French!) opened the lift door for me and said "Ladies first!" I felt like a princess. Pebbled floor.

When we were six she moved back to France. I found her on Facebook again two years ago.

Yan Hua in P1 and P2; classmate, my first friend in primary school. I went to her house a lot, and our mothers would chat - her mum in Chinese, and then my mum in English. I remember her insanely fun computer game about snow and little math problems in between. We organised class picnics at the canteen together.

Rupini and Evelyn in P3 and P4; with Evelyn I shared an intense love-hate friendship. We got on each other's nerves; she refused to let me copy during Chinese spelling tests (but we both barely passed). I also remember us jumping in the puddles on our way home together. Rupini and Yan Hua didn't like each other. Once we were lining up at the quadrangle; both wanted me to line up with them, pulling each of my arms towards themselves.

P5 and P6: the legendary Rachel & Teressa. I wrote in my diary about sitting beside "a nice girl called Rachel" when I was the table row leader and she was assistant (HAHA), and Teressa was part of the Teressa-Raymeo-Karen-Derrick perpetual-note-passing-at-first-row gang. Rachel and Teressa were already best friends before; they introduced me to JJ...and started my never-ending journey of JJ fandom.

BRACESSleepover'05

And we've stayed strong till this day. Awesome picnic on National Day; spent the 2011 New Year sleeping over at Teressa's place (just like old times!); we spend every Teachers' Day together, because it's Teressa's birthday (and near Rachel's). Our friendship's a blessing.

Sec 1 & 2: I had a clique - Nadine Jiayi Yimei Lingling Silvana and sometimes Amelia.

HIDAMARI. That's what we thought the keychain was called. We loved them. We named our clique after it.

Their limbs fall apart easily, but never the head. We tried.

The only time I was truly an extrovert. In Sec 2 I had a fall-out with Yimei because of something I called a 'virus of my mind'; I just suddenly couldn't take being around her anymore. I hated myself because Yimei was the most caring lovely friend anyone could ever ask for. So I distanced myself from The Hidamarians, hoping Yimei would find comfort in these friends.

In my confusion, I found comfort in someone else who was in crazy friendship problems too, and we just stuck. Shermin. Like finding shelter in a raging storm.

HEH. I COULDN'T RESIST

Her Chinese name was 诗敏; the first word means poem. My Chinese name apparently means 'soothing melody'. We wrote songs together - she composed the lyrics, and I the tune. Our most iconic one would be the first, 失恋的滋味. We recorded them with my tablet PC in this room in the Arts Conservatory where our SYF props for Dance were kept.

Upper Sec: the lovely Cui Xiao. I was a lonely kid in upper sec (but I didn't care because I had my ex). She's not the kind of person you'd expect as a closest friend, but she's insanely enlightening in the little thoughts of hers. It just...opens up your mind. The way she thinks is amazing, great for someone like me. I just met her earlier this month for dinner!

JC: In class it's Amelia; we share almost every break which is weird because hardly anyone else does (hooray for no Chem / H2 Math!), so we have lots of htht time in the void deck; best thing's that it isn't crowded because the rest are having lessons!

And of course there's the Council, and the Exco - 'nuff said in all my other posts. I guess the closestestest would be Reuben, Emme and Pauline (because she's also my foster sibling, together with Fangjiunn and Seokhoon) and Weiliang. But the others - Jaslyn, Jus-smurf-tin, Geraldine, Chloe, Van and alllllll the others. All of us.

Non-school

There was JJFC that helped me through my very angsty Sec 2 period: firstly, Jacey, and then JT, Janice and Maddie - the four of us joined OB Music Forest (JJ's music company's school) together, and we were evidently inseparable. The day before our audition to be in the singers' training course, we gave ourselves a name - J4M; JM stands for 杰迷 or 'JJ Fans'; but it's really 'JMs 4 Music'. We were an acapella group (I was the harmoniser). And....we were the only people JJ gave an A to. HEEHEE. Later on an omy.sg interview, he said J4M was the one that left him and the other judges with the deepest impression; he didn't expect acapella from a group of 4 girls whom he knew were his fans. HEEHEE. It was super shiok seeing 'J4M' appear in front of his face on the screen. OMG.

HALLOWEEN

We still meet sometimes, at church and stuff; I'm closest to Maddie now.

And last but not least....... THE CHILDHOOD FRIENDS

(our parents and the rest of The NUS Choirmates meet up every Chinese New Year & Christmas. We've known one another for longer than we can remember.)

WE COOKED TGT LAST SATURDAY. I COOKED.

Sarah. We went to Sunday school together and had countless sleepovers at her place. Her awesome pink room and armchair and every other pretty thing inside. I loved her house. I watched her golden retriever grow up. We watched Britney's videos and concluded she wasn't wearing undies; we played random computer games like Graal; we experimented with dark purple nail polish and body glitter (SHE STILL HAS THAT GLITTER STICK IN HER HOUSE); we spent two hours in the bathtub (until her grandmother got worried); omg we staged plays for our parents hahahahahaha.

Sumay. I wasn't as close to her initially, but we did have sleepovers in primary school too. I remember her condo's swimming pool. We and our brothers took up badminton when I was about 12 or 13. (I sucked.) It's interesting that I used to see Sarah every Sunday morning, and then it became badminton with Sumay every Sunday morning. We were there for each other every stage of our lives. I know the names of her primary school crushes and her classmates and all the stress she's been through. I was there for her through her breakups; she was there through mine. I remember crying at Boonlay MRT station while she consoled me through the phone: "You've got to be strong. You can't turn back now. You have to stay strong."

And it's great to have childhood friends. Sarah and I went to Australia (TOGETHER! ALONE!) in the first week of this June holiday to visit our other childhood friend Audrey. Which reminds me, I haven't blogged about it!

Sumay and I still meet and make sure we're updated with everything about each other's lives - it's been quite a feat, actually; we're not in the same school, not in the same level, yet we know everything. It's been much harder to update each other about everything now that we're in JC, but we have our ways. Today we wrote down on paper where we'd like to see ourselves in 30 years' time. Today we exchanged straw hearts.

Why can't I rotate the pictures?!

yay, I'm blessed, I'm blessed.