Spotify Wrapped has arrived and everybody is hyped so that must mean something right? It’s that time of the year when we realize that another end is here and we have got to buy another calender for the same and pen down some new resolutions , which would rarely come true. Also , friends like to plan to spend their last day of the year i.e. 31st of December with full vigor and zeal.

I don’t understand the hype to celebrate the first and the last day of the year. What about the other 363 ( or 364 in leap year) days? It shows that mediocres are given no recognition in the society . It’s always the winners and the failures in the limelight . Everything else is invisible like most of ya’ll’s love life (sorry not sorry) .

Now that spotify has recounted the amount of revenue it has generated via each listener , I want to recount something too . The amount of memories I have generated via each of my friends ( because I’ve got no money (I’d love some of it but since I don’t , let’s pretend I am content with just the people)) .

When this triple two-ed year started , I was burdened with immense stress and anxiety like every one of my peers . We had our board exams upcoming. I literally gave my sweat and tears for this (no blood of course; I don’t know why people say that , was it meant for athletes? militants? ) and passed with contentious marks . Anyway it’s not about this. The boards terminated and after almost of month of free time , school resumed.

For the first time in my life I was going to sit in a new class . I am not exaggerating . I had been studying in the same class for a decade with almost the same classmates. I was so used to it that I felt as if I was leaving a part of my life behind , which I was in some sense. The three Es followed me there : Estrangement , Excitement , Expectations.

I am a born loner and introvert . I didn’t and don’t know how to initiate conversations. It takes me months to ease up with people. For me , familiarity breeds comfort. If you ever meet me and feel like I am shy or rude (if I speak anything) or ignorant towards you or something parallel , don’t mind it. In easier words , I suck at socialising . But once I do , I give it all. I love my friends and I constantly want them to like me too.

So for all the aforementioned reasons , when I had started class 11 , I wasn’t sure of making any new friends . It wasn’t like I didn’t try to get out of my comfort zone but patience isn’t a virtue I particularly have in myself. The rest of the day didn’t matter because I would be swarmed with work but recess used to be a slap at my face. It would make me realise that in a class full of 39 students I was alone.

But one day , after many , many days , the universe heard my longings and the stars finally aligned for me when Ruby entered the class. (The lost and pretty girl from last blog) . I remember the day so vividly – she entered the class and knocked on the door (another one of Ruby’s unreasonable, awkward tendencies) , searched for a vacant place and sat on the first bench of the first row. Not that I expected her to sit with me (I was far from any expectations of making any new friends) but my heart did squeeze a little at that. But then this other girl told her to sit with me . Ruby complied . She was very pretty even with the mask on. And she said something about school. I don’t really remember . She narrated me the entire story of how she had changed like 9 or 7 schools in her academic career of 14 years ( which was a refreshing story I guess? And she expected me te be surprised too.) And then something being anxious about the mask ’cause no one had put one and some other stuff , which I don’t care to recall but I do remember that the first thought in my mind after this was that “If she sits with me for a week atleast she’ll become my permanent seat partner” also , ” But that’s too much expectations too fast” . Anyway it happened exactly what I had wanted . She did become my permanent seat partner. She was indeed a savior . Although I would never say it to her face , she is a breath of fresh air. She is all kind and sweet and caring and almost motherly in a sense. I literally feel like a Satan sometimes with her.

And then someday I talked to these two other girls . Let’s call them Luna and Tia.

Have you seen those butterflies that are so buoyant and happiness-inducing and pretty that you wanna touch them a click a picture with them but you just can’t catch hold of them, no matter how much you try and it’s so exasperating that you might as well lose any shred of interest towards it and blame your stupid,stupid luck , that never works? Yeah that’s Luna , for you. Luna is basically lunatic. She is like fireworks in the sky .Exciting and explosive. And even though I am steadfastly against fireworks and they greatly annoy me , I do find them beautiful and I like all that shimmer and gold . That’s exactly how I feel about Luna. We do not , in any way, have the same edges and margins but probably that’s why somehow we fit in together in this puzzle of life. It’s endearing and surreal to believe that this could happen .

Luna’s best friend, (mine too) Tia ,on the other hand is like a black and white TV in a 80s vicinity of some Indian town. Fascinating , attractive and immediately popular . She is the best version of Serena and Blair (without all that gossip and immaturity) . Everything in her life is arranged in rights and wrongs. She reminds me of Dumbledore with her immaculate acumen. Under all that kindness and niceness , lies a big , mature braniac , who knows exactly what to do and how to act in any situation. Only twice have I met such people (I’ll talk about the other one later). What must it feel like to grow up that street smart? It’s a matter of pride and luck to have such a friend . You never meet anyone without a reason . Either they might need you or you do , them . In her case , it’s definitely her I want to learn from. But we cannot forget that she does actively participate in my dumb jokes .

One random day , out of the blue , we became friends. I don’t remember exactly how and why our conversation started but I do know that it hasn’t ended till date. It seemed as if we had some symphonic humour and opinions. Sooner or later we became really , really good friends. We hung out together , celebrated birthdays , made inside jokes and fun of people (thats vital for any friendship) . Over just the past five months we have become so close it feels as if we had known each other for so , so long . It is surreal to see such friendships happen , let alone experience them.

I have never been a person with a huge clique of friends nor that I intend to be. My friends are all the colours in one , at full brightness. Partly fanatic , partly hazy these people have replaced the three Es in my life with new , brighter ones – Ebullience, Eclecticism and Euphoria.

And on this happy note I’d like to dedicate this playlist to these newcomers of my life :

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1WsF7Odu7yP5n6OVSCPV1r?si=swdCIRpoQyS_lG8IHbF01w&utm_source=copy-link