A HARD GOODBYE
Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave and impossible to forget. We meet different people in our every day life but only few remain and become friends. Their actions, lifestyle and character are what make some stay in one’s life and gain the title of ‘friend’. My best friend Pauline and I were at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, waiting for her ten o’clock flight. She looked at me and consoled me that all will be well and that the three years will be over soon.
I looked at her and smiled, it had all happened too fast, clearing high school, receiving our grades and her getting a scholarship to study law in Oxford University. Yes I was more than happy for her but couldn’t the scholarship have come after a year? I thought. I couldn’t imagine her not being there for me, a dial away. I guess she had spoilt me with the constant attention. My mind then slowly drifted off to how our friendship started. My family was going through financial problems due to a dramatic change in the economy of the country and we had to make some financial adjustments.
The people I thought were my friends slowly started avoiding me, they stopped coming over for lunch and sleepovers and even avoided greeting me after church services. All this my mother had earlier mentioned when I first took my friends home. The words were still fresh in my mind ‘the friends you are with are just acquaintances if we had nothing they would not even want to know you’. It sounded like a normal mother’s lecture I did not think it would happen to me. Back then Pauline was a girl I just greeted in school and talked to her when we had group work I never thought more of our friendship than one based entirely on academics.
One day we were assigned group work after which she suggested we have lunch together and since I no longer had ‘friends’ to eat with I agreed.
From that day on we did everything together from going to school together to attending social events and even tagging each other on dates. I had found myself a friend, she came into my life when I was low and the world around me seemed to be crumbling, from problems at home to my friends abandoning me, yet she put a smile on my face. Its then that I came to understand who a real friend is and I appreciated her in my life. One could understand why it was hard for me to say goodbye. I was quickly brought back to reality by an announcement on the speakers ‘London through Dubai boarding at gate 18’. Pauline stood up, as her parents headed to where we were seated.
I then stood up to help her with her bag, as we walked towards the gate my heart sank I wanted to grab her and cry like a baby then I thought, its not so bad she is coming back and this was the best thing for her to do so I kept calm and continued walking. We got to the gate, she turned hugged all of us and then looked at me and said ‘love you dear will let you know when I arrive, be safe’. She pecked me on the cheek then turned and entered the door, we watched as her luggage was checked in and then she went up the escalator and disappeared. It truly was a hard goodbye.
Type of writing – Narrative, opinion
Audience – Women aged 16 – 25 years
By, Rose Wangari N’gang’a – 08-0778
Placement- Eve Magazine
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