These years, will one day be intimately regarded as “those years” when we look back at them with a small but knowing smile.

These are the years that are categorised by our transition from adolescence into teenhood, and then into adulthood, when we discovered new people, new environments, and new emotions. Icky boys whom we once wanted nothing to do with suddenly put on a coat of attractiveness that made us want to have more of them in our lives. What we were once so shy to admit to one another soon became a major conversation topic. And feelings which we were once too afraid to confront eventually soon became something that bound us together somehow, and provided a common thread through which we grew together, laughed together, and cried together. We fell, we gave, we loved, and we hurt. It became natural for us to sit at quiet cafes and mope over the boys whom we thought were finally “different” from the rest, the boys who all gave us the hope that they would be the exception to the stereotype. In the end it was second nature to chant phrases like “he’s not worth it”, or “you deserve better”, or “don’t worry, there’s someone out there for you”. These things grew to become cliched lines we stole from sappy romance novels or movies based on Nicholas Sparks’ books, but whenever we heard them from each other, deep inside we recognised their inherent truths. We were better off. We did deserve someone better. And there was someone out there for us. Some of us kept making the same mistakes again, some of us made the right choice - or so we thought - and things went well for the first couple of months but in the end we still had our hearts broken, but for others, they got it right on the first try. In my head I called them the “lucky ones”, but maybe they were better at making decisions than the rest of us in the first place.

These are the years that we’ll always remember. The quiet but exact moments that are etched in our minds for the rest of our lives. The ones who came, the ones who got away, the ones that stayed, and the ones whom you decided to withhold your feelings from for the sake of preserving the friendship. But no matter what, they all made a difference. And for at least one season of our lives, we shared something special, something that held our worlds together for that period of time.

These are the years that transcend time and age. Their impermanence and transience are all too evident, but we know for sure that they never really do go away, at least not in our hearts.

1 day ago · Tagged personal reflections relationships