This post is dedicated to the longest living friend I have as of today, April 16th. I met him in the 5th grade out of sheer embarrassment, but we have maintained a rather steady friendship ever since.
How did it happen, you might ask. Well, in the 5th grade, when I transferred school districts from Stanton to Garden Grove, I began my childhood endeavors with a fresh start at Stanford Elementary School. I was a super awkward, and not to mention shy student – so I failed in making any friends. 2 months into the school year my 5th grade teacher Mrs. Demaria walked up to me and said, rather bluntly, “It’s been 2 months, isn’t it time you made friends instead of talking to yourself?” Those might have not been her exact words, but that triggered a desire in me to actually instill change, and so I immediately walked on over to the handball courts and introduced myself to Thiep. He became my first friend at that school. Without that starting point, and his generosity back, I might have been doomed to never have friends ever, but luckily he was nice enough to acknowledge my human existence. From that point on, our friendship grew over the years, as we encountered the awkward phase of middle school, the tedious busy work of high school, and the loneliness of the period known as adulthood.
Three very important memories that will forever last in my brain:
- Winter formal night. Right before, we went to a friend’s place where we played cards, talked about how much winter formal would suck, and subsequently watched Stardust. Yes, that was indeed a very awkward event, but it was that memory that we would talk about for years to come subsequently.
- A car accident where it looks like in the picture Thiep crying. As tragic as the event ultimately was, it revealed to us how lucky we were to have met one another and to still be alive.
- The day Thiep left. It didn’t necessarily dawn on me how great Thiep’s friendship was post-college until he left (PERMANENTLY) for San Jose. There have been too many countless memories of us playing cards, playing pool, getting Boba, getting Starbucks, bowling, talking about girls, watching movies, drinking alcohol, among the other countless unnameable past experiences.
With that said, a piece of Thiep lives in Garden Grove still, his memory forever enshrined in the friendships of Triet, Vu, & Brian, whom I had the chance to see again today.
I know eventually our paths will cross again, but without Thiep, it would have been difficult managing the transition ultimately from high school to college, and from college to adulthood. I wish him luck in his future endeavors in Medical School and know his impending success is soon to come.
