I don’t remember if there was a single moment in my life when I never worried about not making friends along the way, even during something as mundane as a bus ride, I felt the need to make a friend. I relied on smiles and conversations. I thought that it was something, that in exchange of those small gestures, I was making a change. I thought I was more fun when I am in an indefinite chase of perceiving every romance as a platonic love. I was made more of a friend than a lover.
Considering I was that shy-timid-selectively-mute child growing up--it sounded off even just writing it now. I was afraid to speak. I never wanted to be seen, yet, I won’t also say I was born that way, I think of that radiance almost every one I know had when they were a child as something that I was somehow robbed of by my great old friend, poverty. With monkey-like ears that bequeathed me a nickname, with chipped teeth, and being exceptionally scrawny that it was a great horror for me to get weighed in front of my class back in fifth grade, just who would want to know they’re 19 kilograms?
When I was in my 11-year-old body, I couldn’t think of any person that was having it worse than I am. Looking for things to love about myself then was like emptying the water bottle pockets of my backpack, there was nothing but pieces of crumpled papers and candy wrappers, and how it would remind me of the feeling when you’re trying to hide you got a zero in a test and you need a parent to sign it. It was my own little world filled with things I wouldn’t know until now.
I was a glass half full of self-pity, that I’ve forgotten it was also that 11-year-old who made it possible to be a part of a chorale group, who was a girl scout, who loved writing more than I like it now, a silent worker, a pretend masseuse, the oldest sister that played the role almost like a mother, the girl who tried every possible thing to compensate to what she thought her misfortune. I forgot about all my silent achievements trying to be liked, I thought that was life is about.
The whole sense of belonging seized my ability to accept I did not need to be liked. I was trying hard to be this and that. I never quite realize that even I, had people I didn’t like. I would cry in frustration why, that even how much I tried, there were still people who managed to unlock my fear of not being liked. Why people always have something to say.
I still struggle with my feelings. Turns out, I have never gotten old enough to understand that we’re not always the person the other needs.
But, maybe, I am learning how to be a friend to myself. And that’s enough for now.