A while back (we’re talking months upon months) I posted the translated lyrics to Tenshi ni Fureta yo!, a song from the anime K-ON!!, the basic gist of which is a farewell song from the 4 Senior members of the Music Club to the sole remaining Junior member. In the context of the episode in which it’s played it’s a beautiful song, and actually moved me to tears (only the second Anime to do so, the first being the last episode of Angel Beats!)
I liked LOVED this song because, at the time, I’d just moved out to Australia. Moving 12 thousand miles does a number on your social connections. Even with something like Facebook, the lack of face-to-face contact and the time difference alone severed almost all my previous connections in the UK. Before I left, though, we had a party to say goodbye to all the friends we’d made in the decades we lived in our hometown of Bury. Obviously my parents had the lions share of the guests, having over twice the experience in life that I have, let alone my younger brother.
I invited a few close friends. Going off the top of my head there may have been about 10. Of those 10, only 3 turned up. I was absolutely devastated. These were supposed to be my friends, after all. They couldn’t even bother to pop their heads in for five minutes to say goodbye. Two of them ended up having valid excuses and were forgiven (one was stuck at work the entire time, the other was babysitting his brother). The rest? As much as it pained me, I decided to forget about them. One of them even un-friended me on Facebook. I have no idea why, or when, but I assume it was about as soon as I left the country.
The ones who did turn up though? Best friends I’ve ever had. You’ve got Hannah, who’s got the personality of a hyperactive Pug and the height to match. I love her like I’ve known her my entire life even though we’ve only been friends for about 3 years, and been in the same country for about half that. We have ton of jokes that only we get, and even have nicknames for each other that only we use. She’s the only person in the world I have that kind of friendship with, and it’s fantastic to have it.
Then there’s Ben. You know how every group of rock-oriented teenagers has that one ginger kid who dyes his hair black? That was Ben. Underneath his Jaffa Cake-like exterior though, he was brilliant. I’m honestly struggling to think of some sort of specific, but he’s just one of those guys who is all round a great friend. He even respected my house when we had everyone round for drinks, which is more than I can say about some of them. He was, and sadly probably still is, one of my best friends, and I’d like to think him turning up is a testament to that being a mutual feeling.
Finally, there’s Paul. Now, I met Ben and Hannah on my second trip into Tertiary Education. When I met them I knew there was a very real possibility I’d be gone in a few months. Paul, however, was on the first course I took at college. Me, Paul and Jordan (The Babysitter) hit it off from the get-go. We’d go round to my house on our longer lunch breaks (I lived just down the road from college) and play a few rounds of Super Smash Bros. Melee, and later Brawl. It was some of the most fun I ever had, and I’ll always remember it. The thing I think I’ll always be thankful to Paul for, however, is getting me into anime.
It sounds like a small, insignificant thing. It probably is to most people and, until I though about it, it was to me too. But without Paul getting me into anime, specifically BLEACH, I never would have discovered J-Pop and consequently SCANDAL, without whom I wouldn’t have found SCANDAL Heaven, without which I never would have made a shit ton of friends online who I later met in real life during a trip to Singapore to see SCANDAL live. So yeah, that was basically just one big snowball waiting to roll down a hill, I guess.
So yeah, I have a decent amount of friends back home. But it just goes to show, with friends more than anything, it’s quality not quantity that counts.
