since kindergarten

By Alysiana Perez

I remember when I first met Bianca in kindergarten. I was really shy, and she seemed very shy too. We were both very young so it's difficult to remember what exactly I was thinking when I first met her.

But from what I recall, I just wanted to make friends, and Bianca was there. Since then we’ve become very close friends and even got to be in some of the same classes together, and that opportunity gave us time to become even closer.

We were both new to Shirakawa, an elementary school and didn't really know where our friendship was going to lead us at first, but in the end it worked out just fine.

Bianca: “Well I was like she- I was like oh it's another girl! Um she's like there in the corner, maybe I can make a new friend. So my impression would be "I thought you were friendly, yeah.”

She and I have had a lot of good memories throughout our friendship, though my favorites were during the time we had an after school program we attended together.

When she and I would spend our free time together or help each other out with our homework, and even go together to attend the after school events, it made fun memories.

For example, we would go in groups to an after school event or festival, and me and her always paired up together with some other friends. Walking around playing games that the students would create like cup pong to try and win a fish, and eating snacks and drinks made my day as we just enjoyed our time together.

During the last week of school one year, we were given free time to do anything and I'd mainly spend it with her since we were almost always in the same class together. We spent our last week watching movies, making bracelets, and even just playing games together.

Bianca: “So many memories, but my favorite one is probably when we were younger in school and we would be in the morning we would just wait for the classroom and we would get out your phone and oh my gosh- we would just listen to BTS until we go into class and we would just like be screeching out the songs- and annoyed everyone”

Aly: “Those were good times, Aww”

Bianca: “Yes”

Aly: “Those were 5th grade memories”

Bianca: “I missed that. 5th grade was best”

Aly: “That was amazing”

As cheesy as it may sound, we truly think there’s nothing wrong with our friendship, and we love it just the way it is. Over time we’ve had a lot of ups and downs due to random silly arguments we’d had and never handled right.

Things like getting mad at each other for no reason, but instead of talking it out like we should have, we would just draw pictures for each other as a sign of an apology. That or beg for forgiveness from each other till the other forgive one another.

We’ve felt like it's just our childish past that we’ve now grown and learned from, we talk frequently and tell each other anything we feel like.

Neither of us gave an actual reason to be mad at each other since we never did anything drastic to cause a huge argument or a huge fight, and if we did we’d apologize then get over it like it was nothing.

Our arguments weren’t something or are something that we were ashamed of due to our childness, frankly we take it in a light hearted way.

When we’d argue it would be out of nowhere for random reasons, we’d never take it seriously when one was mad at the other, like fighting or yelling at each other.

Whoever was mad at who would end up drawing multiple pictures for them or begging for forgiveness, even if the reason they were “mad” was for the fun of it.

One of us staying mad at each other wouldn’t last for long, we’d always give in to the others' begs for forgiveness and drawings and would go back to normal instantly.

Bianca: “Yeah I actually wished we talked it out but like, when we- I feel like we did talk it out but we talked it out with emotions instead of logic, so I wish we were maybe a bit more understanding of each other and saw the bigger picture of what was going on.”

Aly: “ Yeah, I agree. We-we just like, we didn't think it through logically.”

But there was one time where I had gotten into a separate argument with one of her close friends who was also mine. Since she was still friends with them it tested our friendship together since she would still talk with them and I’d be left ignored just listening rather than joining the conversation.

We eventually overcame it as the argument became less recent, we hung out more. She’d still hang out with them on her own time since she knew I was uncomfortable with it which is how we overcame it.

Whether it be something random like what we're having for dinner or a serious conversation we feel the need to have with each other. We know when to take things seriously and when we can joke around.

Whether it be something happened to her or to me and we need to talk about it, we know not to joke about anything at the time considering it's a different situation where we cant be as carefree, joking around, or making funny comments.

Bianca: “Ooh I feel like we have a strong friendship, were also a healthy one, I feel like in our friendship we are able to be honest with each other and we know when to be serious and we know when we can just have fun and be ourselves”

Aly: “I agree”

We are very honest with each other as Bianca has said, whenever we do get into an argument which is very rare for us, we talk it out quicker rather than later to resolve our problem.

Always very open to talk rather than choose to not trust each other and let our friendship breakoff slowly due to that.

I never felt like there was any awkwardness between me and her, we’ve always been comfortable around each other and trusted each other with a lot of things, yeah we’ve had our downfalls but we’ve grown from our childish young selves mistakes.

Her thoughts on our friendship is that there's a lot of trust that grew from us just knowing each other for a long time.

I agree with her, she also says that we have a lot in common and considering we had classes together and after school programs we both attended, our friendship grew from us spending lots of time with each other.

As well as having a lot of trust put into each other, both of us usually don't open up to random things to a lot of people, so having each other to talk about practically anything with is comforting to both of us.

We’ve both been there for each other during this pandemic, supporting each other and trying to keep each other positive through this, reminding each other that it will pass and we’ll be able to get to see each other in person again.

With us being stuck inside, our mental state hasn't always been the best but we're there to remind each other it's fine and to cheer one another up.

Bianca: I feel like it's our close bonds with each other and how we’ve known each other for so long, and we just tell each other pretty much anything and everything we want.

Aly: “I agree”

Bianca:” I don't really do that with a lot of people”

Aly: “Yeah”

Bianca: “So it's very special to me.”

Aly: “Especially because we’ve known each other for so long we just automatically trust each other with so many things”

Bianca: “Yes’

I’d say that a lot has changed since kindergarten, obviously since we're older and more mature but even our friendship has changed drastically.

We mainly became friends because we were both very shy considering we were in kindergarten and didn’t wanna be lonely with no one to talk to or be able to partner up with. So with that, Bianca asked “Wanna be friends?” which I happily agreed to.

Our friendship when we were younger would be very playful in a way, getting mad at each other for no reason but none of us taking it seriously, usually never having serious conversations considering our age, etc.

I’d say we weren’t as close then as we are now, we had different friend groups at the time but we still hung out with each other a lot but mainly more with our own friend groups.

Not that we didn’t want to hang out with each other, we just had different friends that we were closer to and would do different activities with in our free time.

Then compared to now, we're in the same friend group, and we talk a lot more frequently. We’ve grown closer as well as our bond towards each other.

We don't argue much, and even if we did we'd talk it out in a mature way rather than just letting it happen and wait for the other to beg for forgiveness.

Back when we weren’t in the same friend group, she and I would talk at times saying things like “I'm tired” or discussing the homework then we’d leave to our own friend groups once we spotted them. Usually we never held long conversations or talked to each other very often, but it's not that we never spoke, we just didn't do it as often as now.

Since 6th grade till now is when our bond really grew, to when we wouldn't talk as often, to now talking very frequently. Even about random things or random posts that are about Kpop most times about things we like in common.

She and I don't end conversations as fast then just leave like it wasn't important, we hold longer conversations with each other and if that ends then we start a new topic to talk about and enjoy each other's presence and time.

Once we feel like we’ve said all we needed to say then we’ll stop talking but it's never an abrupt ending to our conversation, it usually slows down till we stop when we feel it's right.

The friendship as well as her means a lot to me, she's someone I wish to hold a long friendship with and keep in contact even after finishing school.

She’s someone I've been friends with for years, so seeing us and our friendship grow makes me truly happy to know someone stuck by my side and hopefully will continue to for more years to come. I hope her and I can continue our strong bond and get to see each other grow even more.