Friendship Through Pen

   "Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart." – Washington Irving 

     Way back in my high school days, I had a friend that I have never seen. He is not my imaginary friend, he is real. It all started when I took my bestfriend’s notebook and found a piece of paper with a drawing of an anime. Because I found it really cute, I wrote beneath it and said “it’s cute, can you draw one for me too?”.  Jhem my bestfriend, told me that her classmate draw that. Jhem went back home at Pinugay, I didn’t know that she would show my request note to her friend who drew the anime.

      One Sunday my bestfriend gave me a note that answered my request from the previous drawing. I was a bit happy and replied with a note as well. Jhem lives at Pinugay but every weekend she’s staying at our house. Then that’s the start of our friendship, from exchanging notes to letters. I found it  amusing  to have a friend whom I haven’t even seen in person.

Through exchanging letters every week with the help of my girlbestfriend who operates as our messenger, we got to know each other more. I found out that my pen pal friend is not a she but a he, I’m fine with it, because he seems like a good guy. We had nicknames for each other, Chumz is my nickname that he gave to me and Chubz is his. We’ve been pen pal friends for over a year, yet never had a chance to meet in person. I was not able to see what he looks like even in a picture or photo. But it doesn’t matter to me, what’s important is that I had a good friend. "Words are but air; the pen leaves a mark."

  On a bright Saturday afternoon, Jhem and I went to a mall. While we were at the foot bridge, Jhem saw Chubz at one of the shops across the street. She was startled and told me right away and points to the direction of Chubz. I can’t see his face clearly because he’s far from us and It’s hard to have a look when he is in a side view position. I planned on going near to him since he doesn’t have any idea that I was there.  But apparently Jhem stopped me , saying that it’s not the right time for us to meet. She pushed me to a direction far from him. Thinking that there will be a right time for us to meet.

     I thought that we would be pen pal friends for decades, but suddenly he needed to go to a far place due to family issues.  By that incident ,the exchanging of our letters had stopped. But our friendship doesn’t  stop there, there are many ways to communicate. Through facebook we still keep in touch with each other, it’s just sad that we never had a chance to meet in person before he leaves. I hope that time will  give us a chance to meet personally.