Friendships |

When people ask me what my greatest takeaway from this exchange is, many assume it’s the travels or living abroad, along the lines of being able to explore the world and its beauty. However, to me, this open-ended question remains unanswered, but toggles between the friendships that I’ve made and built, or the simple mundane/routined life I had (going to school, cooking meals together, chit-chatting during dinner). Both were priceless to me, but I realised that all of the beautiful moments only seemed so because of the people that I shared them with. With that, I lean on the idea that biggest takeaway from this exchange is the people.

Reigniting the beauty of childhood friendships

I came across a video that talks about how a lot of adult friendships are based on telling people about your life rather than actually experiencing it together, such that it takes substantially more effort to sustain them. The magic of childhood friendships, however, like going on little adventures with your friends and simply experiencing life and its quirks together – thrives on a sense of spontaneity and shared experiences. I think being here and having to navigate this new chapter of my life with all its unfamiliarity, uncertainty and of course, beauty, with my friends, allowed me to indulge in this childhood-friendship-like whimsy (albeit with more responsibilities). When I had to cohabitate with Markers, suddenly all of life revolved around them – we did every activity together, had the same group of friends, attended classes together and hung out 24/7. Thanks to this, I now see that there’s just so much good in simply existing together. These people gave me comfort and a safe space amidst the uncertainties, allowing me to be myself and thrive even in unchartered territories. Adjusting to a new environment (making friends, building a nest for myself) wasn’t easy, but I’m more me when I’m with them. More than that, we were a positive echo chamber, pushing each other to live life to the fullest while finding joy in the mundane. We got to try so many new things together! From attending our first-ever CrossFit class, exploring Copenhagen by bike, visiting countries we never would’ve considered flying to from Singapore (Baltics!), weekly pottery classes, beads-making event, cutting each others’ hair and baking during our free time. The days felt so light. We often talk about how good we have it here and how even the days we stayed at home or spent our time in school still felt so special to us. Mundane moments felt grand and filled me with warmth. The thing I looked forward to the most morphed into something shaped like a meal, shared with the people at the table, filled with peals of laughters and meaningful conversations.

Making friends with the Europeans

Of course, the beauty of friendships didn’t only extend to the people I already knew. In fact, many of the close bonds I forged were made with the people I met there. I remember vividly transitioning from having to constantly code-switch during conversations, to starting to see semblance in the things I find lovely, in them, to having close friends that I now text on a daily basis. I recall how, at the start, even brief interactions with them used to linger in me because I would note them down on my journal in hopes of documenting the rare moments I felt a connection with someone not from my country. But life grew to be so packed with beautiful and meaningful interactions every day that I find it hard to put into words how full they make me feel. I’ve really came so far. Love is a universal language, and being able to find that in a circle outside my own is a rather sweet thing. I won’t describe every single person that have touched me, but I will say these friendships truly made me believe in fate – like how lucky must I’ve been for our lives to intersect so beautifully? That some people felt like they were meant to be in our lives. I think it’s also pretty cool to have friends from many different parts of the world! This definitely had an impact on our travels, as we had personalised itineraries from the locals. For example, our new Estonian and Lithuanian friends very kindly gave us a list of places to visit and food to try. You could even say the main reason we visited the Baltics was because we grew close to them, that we collectively decided it would be a good idea to go (also, that finding people to go with from Singapore may be difficult since these places were less well-known). We took the risk of visiting these less touristy countries, and had absolutely no regrets.