At 4, a friend is your partner during playtime.

At 7, a friend is someone who plays zero point and five stones with you.

At 10, a friend is someone who lends you correction tape without grumbling and buys raspberry ripple with you from the ice cream man.

At 12, you think that you’ll keep in close contact with your friend after going to different secondary schools, but usually no, because you only had each other’s house numbers back then.

At 14, you already had formed a clique of friends, but soon you have to part again due to bloody streaming.

At 15, you start to loiter at malls after school hours; carry sharp combs and tuck out shirts together ‘cos you think it’s cool. You had your first puppy love; then you cry your heart out on your friend’s shoulder after being dumped by your self-proclaimed “first love”. You cheer your friend up by writing sweet notes and buying her chocolates.

At 16, you call someone your best friend and become really possessive; you get jealous when she chooses other friends over you. But still, you go for recesses tgt; you study hard for the ‘O’ levels tgt; you play basketball tgt. You go to prom night, graduate, and look for odd jobs tgt. You shop at Bugis Street and buy the same tops and bags. You want to look like your best friend.

At 17, you are thrown to a brand new environment and there, you meet new cool friends. But people always say that secondary school friends are the ones who will stay, so you’re still pretty close in contact. Then a guy comes along and robs you of your best friend. She is everything about her new boy. You are lost.

At 18, the jerk left your friend heartbroken. You gave your utmost comfort and support. Your friend realizes that she had been a fool and so you two were close again, or even closer. You drink to your heart’s content and prolly went clubbing to divert the heartache.

At 19, you graduate from poly and you’re lost again. You prolly went on a getaway with your friends before starting your first job.

At 20, you are officially in the working society and then everything changes. Not feelings but your schedule. It gets so busy that you count yourself lucky if you’re able to meet your friends once per week. You chill, gossip, cam whore. Got attached but friends still hold an important position in your heart. Life’s great.

At 21, you dread being 21, but c’mon, what’s life without partying? You party, you drink, and you party. You prolly got grinded by some random guys in the club, but it was nothing compared to the stories which you hear everywhere. Liars, two-timers, even fcuk buddies. You get a surprise of the century knowing that some friends are guilty ones too.

At 22, you prolly had made more new friends over the years, but you realised that people still come and go. You stop putting in efforts to every other friendships, and only stayed close to your closest. But you tend to think a lot and get emo very often so you shut yourself up. You don’t see the need for a listening ear so you rant on Twitter / Facebook / your blog. You get concerned friends asking but you always say you are okay simply because it’s an easier way out.

You told another friend that once upon a time, you were willing to sacrifice your life for a best friend but now you do not know. Nobody is indispensable anyway. Your best friend enters a quarter-life crisis. You want to be there but you don’t feel needed. You no longer understand. You are jaded. But it’s uncool to be emo so you put on a false front. You smile. She smiles back 🙂