𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗥𝗬: “We Were Girls Together” by Lara Marie S. De Leon

                                      

Layout by: Jessie Claire Gozun

Published By: Kristine Caye Emono

Date Published:  October 25, 2024

Time Published: 12:40 PM

Category: Prose

Theme: the eternal glimmer of girlhood.

We were girls together. Before the world began to feel smaller, before the weight of the world found its place over our shoulder, and before we understood what it was to grow up and grow apart.

Life used to be so uncomplicated; we shared the same glow of innocence and the same look of youth in our faces as we laughed over things that now seem so small, whispering fantasies of what the future might hold.

We’d sit for hours, gossiping about our lives, dreaming about where we would go and what we would become. The future felt so uncertain, so unpredictable, but long as we were at each other’s side, we believed nothing could ever change.

We didn’t realize how quick time could slip between the gaps of our fingers like sand, how it could stretch and bend and pull us onto different roads. We never thought the paths we dreamed we’d travel together might diverge, leading us into places we didn’t expect.

Even in that ambiguity, there was a quiet assurance that no matter where life led us, we would always have each other. That was a pact that only we knew. But time does what it does the very best—ever so cruelly, slowly, and practically—without us ever realizing, it marches forward, dragging us along with it.

We found ourselves scattered, each of us walking our own paths. We were too drunk on our illusion that nothing could ever come between us; we believed that we’d always stay as the same group of girls, no matter what. But life has its cruel way of filling up the gaps left by people—new faces, new locations, and new duties. And suddenly, we found ourselves separated by more than just miles; it’s years, and occasionally even by silence. The memories of who we were together began to haze in between those calm spaces.

But please, even though we walk different paths, face our own demons—don’t be a stranger. Wherever life takes you, no matter how far your course stray from mine, you will always know me. 

The world may change us in ways we don’t even recognize, but there will always be parts of me that you will know profoundly because they were formed in the light of our shared youth. You will always know the way back to where I am, just as I will always be able to find my way back to you.

We were girls together, all of us. And no matter where we go and who we become, that is one thing the world can never take away. We shared moments that are only ours. There was a deeper connection that went beyond time or distance. Don’t ever allow that connection to fade away because it is real and it is eternal. You might forget bits and pieces of it—the insignificant things, names of places, and the faces of people we used to know.

There was a kind of magic in our shared youth, one that time can never fully erase. Even if we drift in and out of each other’s lives, the connection we built as girls will remain. The girl you knew will always be here, and I know the girl you were is still with you, too.

When we run into each other again and our paths cross, even after years apart, it will feel like no time has passed. Because in all the ways that matter, we will always be those girls—the same naïve dreamers who once thought we could take over the world together—because we are all just the same, in every meaningful way.

So, keep in mind that we were girls together, no matter how far we wander. And that is something that our lives will always bear the scar of.