A Nearby Trip

There’s something about going on a trip with a bunch of friends. It’s never the same if it were family or relatives or a field trip with classmates. Even travelling on your own wouldn’t cut it. No, a trip with friends isn’t the same.

A trip can constitute of being absent for days or weeks, somewhere far far away. It can be for a couple of hours, somewhere close, to forget the world but only for a moment. A park, you could say, offers convenience to those who doesn’t want to wander too far off. But I should ask, does it really matter? Does it matter where you go when you’re with friends? I suppose in some ways being some place new could be more stimulating and exciting. It does provide for a different kind of activity than the usual. Parks are, after all, accommodating to almost anything. Here you could ride a bike, sing a song loud enough for everyone to hear, have a scrumptious brunch with some cider or lay on the grass and stare at the clouds.

When you’re with a couple of young’ins (very much like yourself), you suddenly find every bit of creative idea become a conglomerate of something fun. Improvisation is key. Take, for example, a couple of rounds on the tennis court. Picture this: you’re wearing a sundress, hair riding the wind, sun blaring on your face but it isn’t hot, it’s very windy and the temperature’s just right. You have some heart-shaped sunglasses covering your eyes and sandals unfit for tennis. So you change your shoes into some kind of sneakers but everything else stays the same. In the background you hear comments from your lively friends teasing you about that guy from chemistry class who happens to be in the same tennis court as you. You don’t know how to play tennis, you don’t have the right shoes (never mind the right attire), you don’t even have gear and yet, somehow you find yourself playing anyway. Improvisation. Making it work. Friends can make you do that sometimes.

And on it goes until each of you are hungry. Tennis I mean, not improvisation. Improvisation does not ever stop. When you’re hungry and dead tired, you find a way to enjoy food anyway. A new approach, perhaps, to compensate for the hunger and tiredness. So now picture this: a bench with seats at the far end of the park, it overlooks a lake with a divine view. There’s a dock where you take pictures and you smile to yourself because your friends found a good a spot (much better than the stage you were pointing at). And you take a seat, food laid out in front of you on a white table cloth with checkered borders.

Well what happens now? Do you still remember? I can’t possibly tell you all the details of what happened when you went on that trip! Here’s the gist of it: you ate, you drank, you took pictures, you laughed, you went home.

But there’s something about doing simple things with friends. No matter how many times you do it, even in the same circumstance, it still becomes ingrained in your memory. This is similar to the times you’ve eaten with them in the student center, only with better food and a superior atmosphere. You played chinese garter with an improvised piece of rubber bands strung together. Everyone tried it. It was funny to the people who didn’t grow up with that kind of street game. Then you moved to the playground. You ran and you climbed and swung as if you were ten yet again. There was a game of Dr. Quack Quack, 1-2-3 Pass! and Tag. You took off your shoes and felt the grass on your feet and sprinted to the opposite direction. You smiled and laughed and played to no end. It was like freedom unexperienced from everyday life. It was like living again.

There’s something about spending time with people you enjoy being with. There’s something about doing ordinary activities with them; something about the anticipation of getting new cards and being punished when you lose. It’s moments like these when you escape the clutches of stress that you’re reminded it’s not over yet. You can still have fun. In the end, I should say it really doesn’t matter where you go with friends. Whether it be a different country or someone’s backyard, it’s what you make of the situation that counts. They’re there to keep you company and make sure you laugh when you’re down.

So don’t forget moments like these. You can move on to better things but sometimes the better things in life include your friends.