BFFs

Andrea, Cristy and I have been best friends since highschool. Not only were we classmates from sophomore 'til our senior year, but we were also carpool mates, busmates and neighbors. We were permanent fixtures at each other's houses. My family was their family, and theirs mine as well. We knew everything there is to know about each other and have gone through all there is to go through during our teen years - from puppy love and crushes to our first 'love' and first heartbreak.

Things changed though when we reached college. Cristy went to a different university and though Andrea and I went to the same one, we sort of drifted apart. We were in different courses and had different schedules so it was natural for us to have new set of friends. We rarely saw each other but when we do, it was as if no time has passed. But admittedly things were really different. We didn't hang out as often anymore and we didn't know what was happening in each other's lives like before - to think that we still lived in the same village and were just a few minutes away from each other. But nevertheless, we were still good friends.

Several yearssss later, it was when we were all in the US that we started to catch up and pick up from where we left off. It's amazing and ironic at the same time that when we were in another continent and literally apart (I was in Minnesota, Cristy was in California and Andrea was in North Carolina), that's when we got closer again. Since I went onshore for a work assignment, I've been seeing Cristy regularly in LA. We've never missed our annual California reunion since 2007! All three of us met up in Los Angeles in the summer of 2008 and everything was just like highschool again.

Andrea is now back in Manila since July and despite our busy work schedule, we make it a point to meet up at least once a week (usually on a Saturday). If we are really busy even on a weekend, we make sure to drop each other a call or text during the week just to see how each other is doing. Dinner and coffee has become our weekly routine and we're lost without it. And it is during those night caps at Starbucks, over Caramel Macchiato and Frapuccino, that we find ourselves talking about anything and everything...until we realize that it's already 1am and it's time to call it a night (yeah, we are getting old and can't pull an all nighter anymore!).

Cristy's coming home in January and we are all excited. This is the only time that all three of us will be together again since our LA summer vacation.

It's true that there is no such thing as distance and time apart with the best of friends and I'm thankful that I'm blessed with friends who I can count on whenever, wherever...may they be a car ride or even a plane ride away.

16 years of friendship and counting...now that's something you don't see everyday :)