REAL TALK: Growing Up. Growing Apart.

For over a decade, my best friend and I grew up together. We laughed at the same things. We cried over the silliest things. And on mall dates, we splurged on useless things up to the last coin we had. 

And growing up, we started to pray for each other's lives. We shared words of encouragements during hardships in school and careers. We loved each other's family like our own. We cheered each other's successes. We corrected each other's mistakes. We accepted each other's failures. 

In a nutshell, it felt as if the bond we had, promised us the so-called "forever"—that both of us could easily picture how it would be like to be grandmothers together, sitting on our rocking chairs while knitting our grand-kids' mittens as we reminisce about our 'glory days' back in our childhood. 

I honestly thought we were that strong.

Flaming Wing's Wicked Oreos - Katipunan

And for no good reason, it had to wither. No, we weren't really mad at each other. It wasn't a big war that ended what we had. There was nothing to scream about, nothing to fight about, just nothing really.

But I figured our individual lives were just starting to take a form of its own—our lives were becoming way too different and separate from each other, that in order to grow, we knew we couldn't stay together for any longer.

My values and her values weren't the same anymore. My vision and her vision were two poles apart. My priorities and her priorities never found its way to match one another. My world was eventually becoming a totally different dimension from her world.  And the way to my life’s fulfillment was away from her, and hers was away from me.  

It was a quiet and natural way of drifting apart from each other, but, it was at the same time, sad and solemn. We were like two tree branches bound to naturally grow apart.

"Have I lost a best friend in her?" I asked God.

"No. Not at all."

To my "main chick," remember that you are eternally stuck as my 'best friend' in the storybook of my life, no matter how many friends I am bound to meet tomorrow and the days after. 

We met for such a time and in such a momentous way, that we couldn't avoid entwining. 

Our lives may have started to branch out separately, but we will forever be unified by the same tree trunk we grew from side-by-side, and by the same roots that brought life to us. 

We are forever bound by that one point in our lifetimes, despite both of us journeying in entirely different directions now.