Primary school and beyond

(This post isn't done yet, because I want to add more pictures but my hard disk is at home. Will update it tonight!)

So, I'm holding a birthday fundraiser, and two of the amazing people who have contributed are my primary school besties, Rachel and Teressa. For every contributor, I write them a little note of gratitude, but because I've written so many letters to Rachel and Teressa already, I thought it'd be nice to write a little declaration of our friendship. And it's too long to post there, so here it is!

 Rachel and Teressa were classmates in P3-4, and I came to know the both of them in P5, when I was row leader and Rachel was assistant row leader. I wrote in my diary that I was 'sitting beside a nice girl called Rachel'. :) We started hanging out together when they introduced me to JJ Lin - "There's this singer called Lin Jun something...?" "Oh his name is Lin Jun Jie. Check out his albums! He's really good" - and the rest was history, both with regard to my ultra-fandom for JJ and our decade-long-and-counting friendship.

We had our first sleepover in P6 I think, and when all the P6s went to Malacca after the PSLE, the three of us and Marilyn shared a suite. All the memories - bubblegum, cockroaches, giving Joey the potato chips that the cockroach might have touched, Joey's insane singing in the bus... t'was a good trip. We continued having sleepovers even when we went to different secondary schools, and then to different post-secondary schools. We used to make it a point to meet every Teachers' Day, being a public holiday and Teressa's birthday, and since Rachel's birthday is shortly after, too.

We always have this funny tradition of gift-giving whenever we meet, because there's always an occasion - Valentine's Day, Christmas, birthdays - so there's a lot of squealing and nice boxes and 'thank-yous', and then when it came to upper secondary and JC, it became a lot of I-owe-yous, haha. But I love how throughout the years of our friendship, we've always been very open to each other about everything that's going on in our lives. The three of us create such a safe, trusting environment, and that's very precious.

I guess I'll talk about a few memories I remember very distinctly, and will always hold precious to my heart. I remember playing Dead or Alive with them on Teressa's xbox in her movie room in Sec 2, and how we were all screaming and going crazy and shouting DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!! All that junk food and chocolate in the movie room every year. I remember our 2011 sleepover. I remember us watching some Korean awards and Rachel went "That singer is 17 years old. She's 17 and she's receiving an award and the whole world is looking at her." I remember our deep conversation about our dreams and the future, while Teressa was drawing away on that cool box with the light. We were talking about what we liked to do, and wondering what career paths we could go into in the future. I remember once doing a blog post about church when I was feeling very troubled, and both Rachel and Teressa individually sending me long emails of love and encouragement, where they shared their personal experiences. That was beautiful.

I remember our Harry Potter movie marathon not too long ago! I remember our National Day picnic at Marina Barrage, and the one we had before that at the nice field - I think that was our first picnic ever - playing JJ songs and having a great time just relaxing, away from school stress. I remember Teressa talking about being so tired, so tired of her animation course in Poly, while Rachel and I encouraged her to stay on and fight it out. And Rachel and band in JC.

Oh, and with Rachel...I remember the first JJ event I brought her to. We were standing in the first row, And JJ came so close to us.
LIKE, CLOSE. And when Rachel snapped this shot he was singing 不流泪的机场. She was all hyperventilating and JJ laughed a bit and  gave her the peace sign. (I have it on video!)





Dear Rachel and Teressa, here's to the conversations we've had that reflected the different stages of our lives, whether about CCAs, guy issues (ok mainly me) or the future. Here's to the things we've shared and the love that guards everything we do and say. Years and years later, Teressa will still be drawing, Rachel will still be baking and I'll still be writing. Here's to a decade of friendship, and many more.