I first met Denise (better known as Nise over here) on the first day of school in Bowen Secondary.
It was a whole new beginning in secondary school, and I was pretty glad to be in a whole new environment cause well, I disliked/hated primary school.
(lol i was a messed up kid, but that's a whole other story)
So there I was in the hall all by myself being a hostile little prick.
And then Nise was sitting near me since we were lined up in a row as a class.
Somehow we started talking together with her school mate Bernard,
and I remember that my first impression was "holycrap, this girl can talk a lot".
Do keep in mind that I was a nasty nasty prick at that point in time.
Anyway, so secondary school life started and Nise and I became friends in our "clique" in class.
We were friends, but we weren't exactly really that close?
We just hung out and stuff.
However, as I mentioned earlier, I was a prick.
But I was a prick that wanted a new beginning.
So for some reason, just through the first year with Nise and my group of friends, I found myself getting influenced in the right way.
I found out what it meant to have lunch with people that care, and friends that I can laugh and joke about with during those short recess breaks while I ate my egg mayo sandwich and they had cream of mushroom soup and garlic bread.
So anyway, the first 2 years went by like that, and we just grew up together playing catching after school and maybe gossiping a bit too much about teachers.
The one thing I vividly remember though, is that Nise was there for me.
She might not have exactly understood my thirteen to fourteen year old woes, especially when it's about boys and beauty and stuff like that but she was there to make me laugh somehow and that counts as something, if not everything.
Fastforward to upper secondary.
Our small group of friends was divided due to the splitting of classes and subjects etc,
and I ended up with Nise in the same class.
From the first day of secondary 3 onwards, I think we really started to know each other a lot more.
At this point in time when i was 15, yes i still thought that "ohgosh this girl can talk" but the amazing thing was that I found myself talking equally as much to her or listening to her.
The one very special quality of Nise is that she can easily go from uttering gibberish to being freaking deep in like seconds.
And throughout the 4 years that i've known her, but particularly when we were 15 and 16, she never failed to wisen me up with her advice and warns me when she sees me digging my own grave. And hahaha I did that a lot. But y'know even when I ignored her warnings and made a fool out of myself, she never failed to pull me back up again. I don't quite remember what drama went down then, but I know a lot of shit happened in secondary school and I felt like death for quite a few times.
Yah i'm rolling my eyes now for feeling so devastated at that point cause it seems like nothing now,
but I was devastated, and I remember Nise coaxing or scolding me through it.
(You know I know what shit happened but it's too embarrassing to say what here hahaha. I'll never understand why I made some decisions. )
I vividly remember going to the classrooms and having Nise beside me as my tablemate was the best thing ever. Like when we spazzed over Kpop, sang in class and made a horrible noisy pair during Amath class.
We just started growing together and eventually owned O levels :}
And then JC came and we went to separate schools.
I've no idea what logic this is but going to different schools didn't make our friendship turn to dust or anything.
I found myself updating her about life in SA and though we can go for weeks not talking to each other when we find time to catch up again, it's like the conversation just runs on like it hasn't stopped since idk day 1 we met in school.
In these 2 years in particular, Nise has grown aaaaaaaaa loooooooooooooot.
Hahahaa and I mean going from "i'm never gonna be seen in a dress till my wedding day" to "ohmygod, MAXI SKIRTS".
But I love her all the same, and though she has changed quite a bit, maybe it's because in a way we grew up together so she doesn't seem like a different person at all??
As in, I don't feel like she's foreign at all y'know??
Also, in the last 2 years, we started having a lot more "deep" convos and it's just great talking to her at 2am in the morning about life.
I used to think that we had nothing in common (first day of school) but as we grew up, and after 6 years, I realised that we do have so much in common, whether it's our love for words, art, fashion and even haha vegetables.
Nise truly feels like a sister to me and I feel very very fortunate to have her in my life.
And i know that she's literally a phone call (or many phone calls if she's asleep) away when I need someone to vent to and ask for advice.
The point is that this girl will pick up the phone.
Or she'll call back.
and i'll never be left on my own.
Happy Birthday Denise Ho.
you're an awesome human being, thanks for being alive.
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