Here's to the nice guys

I've read this piece a few years back and wished I could write something like this to you, dearest guy friends.

For all those Kakao conversations about life, travelling (habagat-willing, Indotsina, etc) and all other small things (eg 'vowels galore' on Words with Friends); for Saturday Skype calls just to share our homesickness (and the endless chat about broken traditions); for Gmail chat when I'm taking a break from work; for your online presence during my bouts with near-starvation and dental problems; for conversations at Lau Pa Sat about being bold and taking the leap of faith; for telling me about the need to be happy and content with whatever choices I make; for listening to all my shallow/crazy/dramatic (insert your choice of adjective here) concerns, and being so patient with me regardless; thank you. I don't say this often, if at all, but I'm really lucky you're always there.

To dearest guy friends with monosyllabic nicknames, you know who you are. Cheers to friendships that have been founded in Diliman, traced their way to conversations at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Trinoma 4th floor and overcome distance. See you soon, online or otherwise.


Cheers,
Nelly
1 degree from the equator
homesick and recovering from last week's emotional train wreck

these lines

Still now, I send letters into space hoping that some mailman somewhere will track you down and recognise you from the description in my poems, that he will place the stack of them in your hands and tell you 'There is a girl who still writes you...she doesn't know how not to.'

one telling trip

As Snow Patrol says: "I won't be okay and I won't pretend I am."