RomantiCurious

Before 2025 ended, me and a couple of friends decided to get together for a reunion. We scheduled it after Christmas so the traffic would be less stressful and hopefully, people in the malls are also a lot less. It is true that impulsive plans are sometimes the best plans as they tend to push through – and we were glad we did it!

We had not seen each other for a long time, especially after the pandemic. Everyone had become busy with their own lives – work struggles, family struggles, the distance didn’t help as we lived far away from each other. So this meetup was something special – a life update as well as a nostalgic trip because we will inevitably be recalling a lot of our college experiences.

Before the meetup though, I had a few days to think about what gifts to give to my friends. I didn’t really plan to give them gifts because I also didn’t think we would meet up during the holiday season. I couldn’t really think of what to give them so I had this matter at the back of my mind as I went about my usual errands.

Of course one of the places on my itinerary was to go to any of the shops that sell cute stuff. I was sure that I would find something nice to give to the girls there and I was right! I had bought them gifts at the Noel Bazaar – a crocheted Totoro keychain for each of us, but I wanted something else to add to it. I also bought myself cute holiday socks in the same bazaar.

So I found these cute bear highlighter pen set at The Flying Tiger and there was also a bear pencil sharpener so I got that too! Now, we all have something cute for our bag and to mark down those new year resolutions. Yes, I bought myself the same gifts as well because I also love cute things.

They appreciated my gifts and they were really surprised by it. So in return, one of our friends treated us to lunch since it was also her late birthday celebration. Then one of our other friends treated us to desert and drinks at a cafe. We spent more time at the cafe talking about our life updates in general and discussing and comforting each other in our unique struggles. Of course, we also shared a lot of laughs and we celebrated issues that had already been resolved whether the result was as expected or not.

After the reunion, we all felt renewed somewhat and we decided to see each other again after Valentines week. We know that we don’t need big gifts to show our appreciation of each other’s constant presence in our lives. The gift is us being there for each other, ready to listen and to help where we can, even though we are far apart.

This is how friendships should work – especially long-distance ones. It’s the effort to be there that counts more than the gifts and messages. As we grow older, we don’t need constant communication anymore, we just need a reliable presence when we need it and when we just want to be there in person.