Happy 16th Carrisa Low Hui Xuan

{Botanic Gardens, Bellydancing Snowgirls}

Botanic Gardens is a great place to just sit and kill time. It has a mood and aura of it's own, engulfing the people present in a kind of serenity that one can hardly find anywhere else in Singapore. 

As we lay on the mats on the soft green grass with our eyes closed, the six of us drifted from moments of our own to moments together, then back to silence again. The reassurance I felt from knowing that whatever said there and then was genuinely true, and to be kept in our little circle, was unexplainable. Yet again the discomfiture felt from this, being too reassured...knowing that soon, very soon, these 5 important people in my lives were likely to be taken away, too far away for my pleasing, was simply daunting. Speaking of anything and everything made me realise how close we've gotten. Yet silence was a reminder of how far we've come; far enough to be able to soak each other's presence, senseless of uneasiness. What the future might hold for us, we know not but what I do know is how much I wish this wouldn't end. Honestly, the journey in St Nicks is a tough one that pushes us to our very limits, quite depressing at times. Without friendship, the time would've killed. You've been the chicken wing to my Meow Lang. School has been easier to get by because of you…thank you.

To my dearest Carrisa:

Happy Sweet 16th my dear! I hope you had a good time, and that the presents you received were favourable. (Lingerie ahem.) ;) You have been one of the most tremendous blessings in my life, I cannot emphasise on that enough. I know you feel afraid at times because of life (let's be generic here). I want you to know it's okay to be fearful. It's okay to cry, to cry yourself to sleep sometimes, to do the crazy things you never thought you would, to be angry, to be rash, to laugh insensibly, to want things and to yearn, to feel the indescribable, to think and to think again, to be young and to be old, to be happy for yourself, to be late, to be tardy, to be ahead and to love. It's okay to love with the whole of your heart to fill it with love that you don't seem to run out of. That's real bravery. To admit you're afraid and to face what you fear, to let yourself feel and to let yourself tear… That's courage. And you, Carrisa Low, you're the bravest person I know. There are so many wonderful, lovely and great things about you that I tell myself never to take for granted. You're someone I don't ever want to regret not loving enough. You've been my best friend time and time again, even when I'm never deserving of you. You're kind and sweet, you do things not for the sake of it but because it's worth it. We laugh at each other, with each other. You're amazing Carrisa, don't let anyone or anything else allow you to think otherwise. Cut them off or burn them because you are nothing less than the best. Your friends will always be here for you Carri, you just need to reach and grab.

God Bless,
Shalyn.