There's this rush I get whenever I meet someone new whose energy and vibe matches mine.
It's a blissful feeling which intensifies when the connection grows stronger and stronger.
At first I didn't even know that Goodness and I would become friends and that our friendship would last as long as it has.
It's wonderful that it has come this far and I am glad that it has.
Goodness and I met in Senior Secondary School 1. She arrived in the school before me because I resumed in the second term of the academic session.
I didn't even notice her, to be frank because I was busy trying to make myself invisible.
I had just resumed in a new school, in a new environment and everything was strange to me and quite different too and each day that passed, I looked forward to the closing bell announcing the close of school for the day.
Our classroom was square shaped and my seat was in the left flank while Goodness' seat was in the middle of the class with direct access to the white board.
HOW WE BECAME FRIENDS
For many weeks after I resumed in my new school, I never left my seat to sit somewhere else in class even when I had difficulty seeing what was written on the board.
I was so shy and I didn't want to attract too much attention to myself from my classmates.
When I finally began to settle in and finally feel like a member of the class, one day, I decided to go closer to the board because I couldn't see properly what the teacher was writing and Goodness had an empty seat beside her and so I sat there.
I was quiet, as expected but Goodness didn't mind and she slowly but nicely struck a conversation with me and immediately I felt at ease.
She was the first person who actually spoke to me since I resumed and it really felt good. Other classmates of mine had just been staring at me without saying a word and I didn't even have it in me to bother myself to make friends but all that changed when I met Goodness.
We spoke throughout the class as we wrote our notes and we laughed and giggled a lot that we almost got punished for being a nuisance in a teacher's class.
If we got punished, it'd have been my first punishment. ;)
But we didn't get punished.
Turns out that we actually had a lot in common and we used the same route to get to school which meant we could get to school together and leave together.
It was like a breath of fresh air for me. My very first friend in a sea of students who already had one or two cliques that they belonged to.
Cliques didn't interest me and I saw it as some sort of crowd even. But with Goodness, I found a very good and loyal friend.
Soon, I switched seats and became her seat partner till we graduated.
We basically did everything in school together and everyone knew both of us for that so much that whenever one of us was absent from school fellow students and classmates would express concern.
Luckily for us, the bond remained strong even after we graduated from high school and it was quite easy to keep in touch with each other through social media.
CONCLUSION
Goodness helped me overcome my fear of interaction and being her friend helped me become friends with other classmates and even the teachers.
I felt confident enough to raise my hand up to answer a question during class which I know wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't become her friend and seat partner and had remained in my shell.
We still talk even though college has us swamped with activities but we make sure to keep in touch regardless and whenever we talk, it's like we have been talking for ages nonstop.
I am very happy I got to be her friend.
Thank you for reading!