A few days ago, an old primary classmate wanted to hang out with the class again. So today we had a reunion, we went to eat and then went to our old school to visit the teachers.
I never realized how much I missed my old school until now. I mean, I've studied there for 9 years, it was basically like my second home. I was devastated to have to switch schools due to my grades, but I made my peace with it. I settled at my new school, and though I missed my friends sometimes, I learned to just move on.
And that was a huge mistake. When I stepped into the front gates, it suddenly felt like I was a kid again, just laughing and playing around with my friends during recess. I wondered why we ever fell apart in the first place.
None of us were expecting to get together after so long. Our class group chat was dead except for some holiday greetings once a year. I've never bothered to reach out, for some reason, I felt embarrassed since I was never super close with any of them.
But it's the summer holidays, so we just thought, why not? It'd be nice to catch up.
It started out really awkward, I didn't even recognize some of them. The boys had grown taller and their voices were way deeper. The girls had different hairstyles and they weren't wearing the school uniform I always saw them in.
But then we went to lunch, and we started talking about our old class, trying to remember everyone's names and imagining what they must be up to (only 8 out of 44 of us were free today) and the awkwardness abated.
Then we went to our old school, and seeing all the teachers who've encouraged me and made me the person I am today, I almost sobbed.
It was also really nostalgic to walk into our old classrooms. Since the holidays are approaching, most of the students have left, so we were able to step into all of our old classrooms and galavant around the place like we still went there.
This was the teacher who encouraged me to join the school musical when I was in grade 2. She also helped me practice for a speech festival and my graduation speech. I owe so much to her and I'm so glad I was able to see her again.
After today, I really wondered about how stupid I was to think I could just move on like nothing happened. As though half of my life wasn't spent in this school with all these people I love surrounding me.
I shouldn't have let this all go so easily. I should've tried harder to maintain my friendship with my classmates. I've thought about all the friends I've lost throughout my life, and there's no way I'm going to let them go again.
Now that we've reconnected, we're already planning our next get-together. Despite us going our separate ways when we graduated primary school, I'm glad our paths have crossed again.
Maybe this would sound cliche and cheesy, but I learned that friendships are fleeting, they slip through your fingers so easily if you don't hold onto them. I've made that mistake so many times, I'm not going to make it again.
I don't know why I was so embarrassed to reach out. I think this is something we've all secretly wanted, but we just weren't brave enough to suggest it. All it took was one single message to bring us back together.
Hopefully, our friend group won't dwindle out this time, but just in case it does, I've promised myself I'll initiate a gathering, because there's nothing embarrassing about wanting to hang out with old friends again.
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