My best friend tagged me in a challenge where you post a picture of yourself from 10 years ago and a current one, along with a message you’d tell your 19 year old self. In the midst of searching for old photos, I stumbled upon a picture of the different savouries Rena cooked for me a long time ago. It was during Ramadhan, we weren’t that close yet but she invited me to her place. I was alone, fasting, without family again for the 6 years of studying overseas and to my surprise Rena decided to cook everything Malaysian for me – from scratch (I know this cause I overheard her call her mom for recipes). That was the day I had a glimpse on just how beautiful and kind hearted she was.

I started scrolling for more photos, the more I looked at the memories the more my cheeks started to hurt from smiling so much, especially the developed photos that I took when Rena Nina and I went for our roadtrip in England and Scotland. We were so broke at that time but I don’t think I have ever felt so peaceful and happy. Most times I felt invincible because I knew all I needed were the girls.

We joked that one of us should get married to a Scotsman since most of them are so handsome. As fate would have it, Rena ended up with one, a kind man who suited her perfectly.

 

Rena married the love of her life back in May, the moment she told us the wedding was in Phuket I was like ‘BOOKING TICKETS NOW’.

 

When she walked down the aisle, me and Justina were ready to cry our eyes out but seeing Rena trying to juggle her emotions between smiling and crying left us in a funny dilemma. So we ended up giggling with tears in our eyes. But the moment she started reading her vows to David, we all lost it. 

 

Meeting Rena’s family during the wedding answered my curiosity on how she turned out to be the kindest person ever. Finally, everything made sense. That night she gained a bigger family, a family that I’m sure that will love her just as much.

If there is anything I did right in my life, it was that I got to fall in love with my friends before falling in love with boys.To be fair, boys were not throwing themselves at me and I’m so grateful for that. I had time and space to learn from people like Rena about kindness and selflessness. I believe you are who your friends are, and for that I am so honoured and lucky.

Rena, I don’t have a daughter yet, but if I am blessed with one someday, I hope she grows up to be like you and the rest of the girls. That small act of inviting me over and seeing how you’ve thrived through good and bad times has changed me indefinitely. Thank you for showing me that true love and friendship exists and it doesn’t discriminate, that it doesn’t understand the difference in the religion that we practice, or the colour of our skin, or our mother tongue. I’m so happy you found your lifelong best friend.

 

I think it’s amazing how  things turned out, don’t you think? All I can think about are those girls in Glasgow and how blessed they are to have each other, then, now and always.