Random things always happen at random times.

Tonight I made an appointment with my friends to study and get some assignments done. I didn’t know whose idea was that to study in such an expensive coffee shop (where we didn’t get to sit on the sofa because it was already full and packed with people, by the way), but with eagerness to study like Hermione, we sat on the wooden chairs and tried to study, at least for the first thirty minutes. And there was when things started to be so… random.

First we talked about love and relationship, teased and mocked each other as we joked. We laughed and laughed, and somehow things got serious when we started talking about our future; what we would do and what we would become. We talked about weddings, how we would teach our kids, what countries we would like to visit, and everything.

They told me their dreams; like making a rest area, a gas station, a restaurant, a retirement house or even a big oil company. Listening to them talking about their great dreams made me think about mine, and I was so embarrassed as I thought how shallow my dreams were. I told them I wanted to take a gap year and live in other countries while writing my book, and maybe have a big book store someday. They responded to that in such excitement that made myself even more excited.

I always knew that someday my friends would be great people whom I would probably see on television, giving a speech or doing some important interview, no doubt about that. Tonight, that was become clearer, crystal clear.

The good thing about my friends is, even the serious thing can be so damn funny with them. Like the wild guess about my friend being an opera singer with her soprano voice, or the other friend being a shepherd with a flute. I had a really good laugh until my tummy ached. Being with them is always delighting and enchanting.

Once, I found a quote about friends:

Lots of your friends want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.

I have no doubt about my friends. They have become my friends ever since I rode the bus (and for now, yeah, I still ride the bus). Years from now, when we’re already success and wealthy and have a limo to be ridden, I’m sure they’ll still take the bus with me even when the limo breaks down, as the quote says.

Years from now, when my first book is finally published, I hope they will read this on one of the thank-you pages and remember about a night in September when we confess our dreams, even the wildest one:

“For Ocha, Joydi, Madhan, and Rocky. Thank you for that night in Starbucks, when we talked about everything I never imagined we would’ve talk about. Thank you for sharing your dreams and laughter, as we imagined some of us would become successful engineers, entrepreneurs, ministers, researchers, professors, or even shepherds (okay, this is mean). Remember when we signed the coffee cup and the eco-friendly tissue because we wanted something to remind us about that night? Well, I’m glad we did that. I’m glad we shared our dreams and made wild guesses about what we would become. That night, I knew you guys better. And more than anything, I’m glad that I’m blessed to have you guys as friends. So if you read this, I hope this will remind you of that one night when you found yourself sitting in a dim coffee shop with the overpriced drinks that ripped us, when we were just young and didn’t know the world any better, and made a promise to meet twenty years from then in the other side of the world (maybe Norway?). I hope you will remember about the time we’ve passed and the jokes we threw, like the so-called jarkom: ‘MADHAN KECEWA’. Once again, thank you. Thank you for cheering me up whenever I feel blue, for supporting my dreams, and the most important: for simply being such good friends. I owe you.”

Maybe that’s a bit too long for thank-you pages, considering I’ll have bunch of other people I should thank (like my parents, or my editor, or my husband), but I don’t want to cut any words out, and I won’t, because they should know all of that.

Friendship is like peeing on yourself: everyone can see it, but only you get the warm feeling that it brings.

Anonym

The signed Starbucks cup

Me, and the signed eco-friendly tissue

Treasure :’)