The Process Of FRIENDSHIP

I am currently in 7th grade. Along with my physical development, I am also developing mentally. I am no longer just a person of my own; I am socially active nowadays and trying to make more and more friends. It isn’t easy for me—I don’t know how other people do it—but anyway, I have progressed a bit. I talk to almost everyone in my class. I am enjoying being in school. It’s no longer just a place to study but also a place to have fun.

Along with this, let me remind you that I still haven’t accomplished my so-called desire from a year ago. He is now sitting on the side bench, so we are indeed near, but still in silence. We have a project week—this is an annual event where we receive topics from our subject teachers and have to gather related information and photos. We also receive a set of six books, and during the whole week, we need to present our information on the topics in those books. To put it simply, we have to write, write, and write—but there's a pro: no classes for the entire week! For a school student, nothing is better than this—bunking classes without actually leaving them. Plus, just copying the entire material absent-mindedly and chatting with friends.

I had project weeks every year, but this one was the most special. Stories, jokes, games, and whatnot—that's when we actually began to talk. Mind you, just talk, not friends yet. He was an irritating boy... God! Sometimes we fought over pens, and other times, we fought for no reason.

But things changed the day we became bench partners. I clearly remember that terrible day. I was sitting on the first bench. First, the teacher asked Raj to sit beside me, but she changed her mind and then asked Jyoti to accompany me. However, her mind changed a third time. Druve put his bag on my bench, and I literally shouted, "Why are you putting your bag here?" He s

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aid in a harsh tone, "The teacher asked me to." I made eye contact with the teacher... She didn’t speak directly, but indirectly she said, "Yeah, I asked him to sit there. Is there a problem?" I was praying to God, "No, please don’t do this to me," but God had other plans that day. That day, I accepted a fact I had read long ago on the internet: "A girl’s mind can change even in 0.001 seconds." I saw it happen live that day.

Guess what? We fought every Thursday. You may ask, why only Thursday? Well, our computer teacher never really came to class the entire year and only showed up a month before the final exams. So, we generally spent an hour completely free, most of the time without a teacher. Free time meant talking, and for us, talking meant just fighting. The entire week would go by like this, and then we’d have another fight the next week.

These were the days when I began to get to know him. He was a good person at heart, of course, he talked stupidly, but he was kind, helpful, and enjoyable. Our fights turned into jokes, into personal life talks, and then into secrets. We definitely took our time—a lot of time—to finally become friends. Actually, close friends.

I remember one such day when we were talking about school and friends. He said, "You know, I love everyone sitting here... friendship love, but I love you more because I share my feelings with you." I didn’t say anything special in response to his compliment. I’m a person who can’t express feelings—my feelings stay within me. But his words touched my heart.

Our bond began to grow more and more each day. We had a lot of memories together, and expressing every part of it is difficult. But I can say that my wish to have a good friend was completely fulfilled that day, and my decision to befriend him was turning in the right direction.