Opposites Attract
On a random afternoon, I would usually get a text and without even looking at who it is I knew it was him. One of my closest friends of almost three years, Kenneth (changed due to privacy reasons). We would hang out without any plans and without any purpose. We would say a word or phrase without any hesitations and have it be in sync as if it was planned. We would get together just for the company of one another. He is someone I can tell my feelings without being afraid of being judged. He felt like a friend that I cannot recall how we started getting close, but one of the best friends that I will ever have.
I can say that we have several things in common. We both spend time outdoors around the nighttime and prefer to sleep in rather than being an early bird. Ending a meal with a bubble tea is also a ritual that cannot be forgotten. Most of our mutual friends can never understand our sense of weird humor and tough times. When he is going through tough times, I understand his hardships like how he understands me whenever I am going through a rocky trail. There was this one time when I felt so heartbroken, and I got a phone call from Kenneth. Hearing his voice gave me relief and comfort. He just asked me where I was without any question. He took me to one of his favorite noodle places and told me to eat to feel better. I can never thank him enough for such care that he gave me that day and I will always try my best to give him the feeling that he gave me that day back on his rough days.
Our personalities are, however, the complete opposite of the spectrum. He enjoys hanging out with people and surrounding himself with his friends, but needs alone time at the end of the day to recharge and destress. We are similar in that we both love surrounding ourselves with people and close friends, but I do not need alone time to recharge, and hanging out with people gives me energy. This would be where we sometimes collide due to miscommunications, but I try my hardest to understand his way of living. I would usually not text him the moment he went home or throughout the night because I respect that he needs the time of his own to relax. I would usually wait for him to text me or ask for a quick meetup because I do not want to interrupt him having his alone time at home or elsewhere. He also has seasonal mood changes. He is usually sad or depressed whenever the weather is chilly and the nights are longer. This is somewhat relatable from my changes of mood, but I don’t really mind the weather as much as he does.
We are even from different grades. He was a senior when I was a junior in high school. We had one single class together in high school. It was quite a surprise for many around us because we were so close, regardless of our age differences. We have such different genres of interest and even personalities, so it sometimes amazes me that we built such friendship among these contrasts. I can’t even recall how we got so close and how we started talking on a daily basis, but all I can say is that the best friendships appear when you least expect them.
