Laila

As the title suggests, this post is dedicated to one of my bestest best friends (I have three) in the whole entire universe, Laila Grace.. Since she just turned 23 more than a week ago and I felt my greeting wasn't strong enough, I'm also making this post. It was sincere, though.

Laila is half Ghanaian, half Filipino. Basically, she's Afrasian. Her father is from Ghana, Africa and her mom's from Guiuan, where we grew up. We have been friends for about 18 years now, since we were like, 5 or 6 when we started schooling.

Laila and I had so many ups and downs throughout our friendship. When we were younger, we always fought and argued (even today, but more mature, whimsical arguments).

She is a character. If people that know her were to be asked what they can say about her, they'd probably answer distinct and unique traits because she's badass like that.

These are just a few things among so many things that I know about her that I think can actually be published publicly:

(1) She's a singer. She idolizes Christina Aguilera and Rihanna to name a few.
(2) When she sings, she replaces so many words in the lyrics with other words that just sound alike. Hence, her being called the composer.
(3) She likes to give advice and then quoting her grandmother with words of wisdom (or superstitions).
(4) Even in our own dialect, she makes new words to describe something. The strange thing is, even if the word is entirely new, we still get what she means. (i.e mapara-para [rough as in surface], alunan [pillow], "what do you mean, so not?")
(5) Among the four of us, she is the purest and most truthful. She only lies for very important reasons.
(6) She may not accept it, but her skin color is one of the best among black-colored people I have personally seen in my life.
(7) She is one of the nicest and most generous people I have ever known.
(8) She's gorgeous.

I have had so many super fun experiences and bloopers with Laila in many different places. I don't know if I should tell this but I'm gonna go ahead anyway. Hehe.

When Laila and I went to Singapore for vacation, she got stuck at the immigration office at the airport because of some misunderstanding with a rather strict immigration officer. I was very worried waiting for her at one bench near a conveyor belt, watching people of different races come and go, clueless of what to do. My phone wasn't picking up signal yet because Globe has a very outstanding roaming service, thank you.

Seeing her cousin ate Jaren and her roommate ate Kan waiting for us at the arrival area, I quickly went to up to them and explained what happened. After an hour of tension and anxiety, we all sighed in relief as we saw her coming out of the office, smirking. Apparently, she was the only one who got released the earliest (I bet it was because of her Japanese visa. Hah.) It was kinda worrisome but it was a fun experience (at least for me).

Unfortunately, she is away right now. She's already in Japan with her mom for more than a year now. She's already a resident there which reminds me, Kinna and I will be visiting her in Japan next year since she won't be coming back home anytime soon. I'm quite excited about the trip not only because we'll be having a reunion but also because Japan is one of my most favorite places in the entire earth! We miss her badly.

Despite everything we had been through, we stayed best friends. And we always will stay that way for as long as we exist.

I'm hoping that sooner or later, the four of us could go together on a trip of a lifetime. Karla, who is currently in the US, is the farthest right now. I'm also hoping that if ever I move to New Zealand soon, I'll be able to go back home for anything important, or whatever. Kinna will most probably go to Australia. At least that's near New Zealand. Sigh. Talk about friends drifting apart. Hah.

Laila, you know that I love you, we love you. We hope that you're doing really well (even if we're just a messaging application away). Happy birthday and we'll see you very soon.

PS. And after a few moments, I'll be all like, "Chariiiiing!"