Reunion with School Friends

Holidays, work leave, returning to my hometown, are periodic activities that I do every 3-4 months. In addition to getting more rest, I also make many plans with friends I haven't seen in a long time. We catch up with each other. That's what I did during my holiday a while ago. One message came in just one day before my return.

It was from Ira, my high school friend. She asked if I could come to her study room on Friday. I happened to be returning on Thursday, so without hesitation, I said ‘yes!’ I had one more thing to do to fill my holiday.

On the day, I rode my motorbike north. It took about 40 minutes to reach the location. Today, I deliberately left earlier than the other participants so that I wouldn't feel embarrassed in front of my friends. Understandably, I rarely attend gatherings like this because I work outside the city and rarely go home.

This is a group of my friends from my high school boarding school. Since I arrived the earliest, I helped Ira, the host, prepare various snacks to accompany us during the study session. There were several dishes that Ira had prepared, such as apem, green pudding, steamed banana cake, fruit salad with spicy peanut sauce, and many others that I didn't have time to take photos of.

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After the study session, we chatted and asked each other how we were doing, shared stories, and even happily played games. All the participants today were women. I know and am close to all of them because we lived under the same roof for three years. There was Ira, the host, who is now a housewife; Rofiqoh, who continues her parents' business; Maysaroh, a teacher; Nisa, a batik seller; Fairuz, a teacher; Soleha, a jeans seller; Isul, an agricultural extension worker in her area; Latul, a housewife; Aini, a mother of three; Rini, a mother of one who now also sells risol; and Husnul, who is currently pregnant with her third child.

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Although we stayed in different rooms at the dormitory, we always gathered at certain times to attend daily study sessions. Naturally, even though we had been separated for about 17 years, we were still close when we got together.

That was my precious holiday agenda. See you in my next post.

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