My Friend the Winner

This post is dedicated entirely to a friend of mine who has been through a lot, but still emerged victorious over all the challenges thrown her way...

I have a friend. All throughout this post, I will be referring to her as "Monica" after her favorite F.R.I.E.N.D.S character Monica Gellar. Like the original Monica Gellar, this Monica is just as obsessive about how clean and organized her things, as well as her life has to be.

I met Monica during my first year of college. We were both IE freshmen and at that time, making friends and exploring college life seemed to be at the top of our young minds' list of priorities. She started attending classes in the middle of the first week of the start of the semester. By then, we were already hanging out in groups and had gotten to know most of our classmates pretty well. To our surprise, Monica started hanging out with US! She looked snobbish and stuck up and looked like she didn't enjoy spending time engaging in the niceties of getting to know other people.

To cut the long story short, Monica proved that first impressions indeed often prove to be false. Monica and I became not just friends, but she actualy turned out to be one of the BEST friends I had. Monica was direct, sensitive, understanding, caring and sincere in everything that she did. She was frank, but her frankness meant well, and she was almost always right. This could have been the perfect ending for a story. Except.... I haven't even started yet!

At a very young age, Monica's parents separated. She lived with her mom, as did her brothers and sister. Not long after, her father died from a severe illness and it seemed for her that from then on, she had only her mom to call her parent. Monica grew up to be a smart and wonderful woman! She had a loyal group of friends in high school, she graduated as the batch's valedictorian, and she even had a wonderful boyfriend who adored her as much as she adored him.

But no love life is perfect, and hers wasn't an exception. Monica soon found out that "boyfriend" was having an affair with another girl, and even courting another one. She broke up with him after confirming the stories were true and the couple who everyone thought would make it till forever ended up broken. At this same time, Monica had just shifted from IE to Pharma, and she bore the pressure of catching up with her batchmates and the pain of a love lost. In our third year of college, we soon found out that Monica and boyfriend were once again together. Given how long they had been together, it may have been stupid not to give it another try. (Especially since boyfriend had supposedly realized the error of his ways.) By the second semester, they had broken up again. And just as easiliy as changing his shirt, boyfriend had once again replaced my friend for another girl.

Why am I writing this blog? Because Monica and I just saw each other at the Rigney Hall where the Pharma peeps were having their Recognition Day. Turns out, Monica is number ONE in their Dean's list! Aside from that, she will be flying along with two others to Manila to represent the school in a quizbowl against the top schools of the Philippines.

I am so proud of her!

P.S. Aside from naming two rabbits(who they will be using as experimental animals in the lab) after her ex and his current beau, Monica harbors no ill feelings. HEHEHE