Imaginary but Real

Most often than not our personal viewpoint of the word REAL or REALITY is something that we see, touch and is exciting. So much has to be proven and so much has to be tested before we declare something to be real. This is how the world taught us and this is almost true to all. But I experienced different, several years ago. I believed something to be real without seeing it, touching it and even if I know to my very core that it does not exist.

Growing in a family with strict father was something very bizzare and uncommon in our little barrio that time. I could say I was a bit deprived of my right as a child to play compared to my childhood friends. I can still recall how I envied my friends as they enjoyed running around the neighborhood enjoying the rain while rolling a “kaliding” or a motorcycle's used wheel. I know it was fun, actually it was very fun. I can feel it even if could only see them from the inside of our house while peeking through a small hole in a closed window. How I wish I could join them, how I wished I could enjoy the rain like them, how I wish I could laugh like them while running wet with messy clothes.

But my father would always tell me to stay inside so I will not catch some colds and play with my siblings instead. My sibling felt the same way I did but we have to obey because we were taught to respect our parents and respecting them means following them.

My life as a child went on like that oftentimes. Therefore, I could not forget how happy I was when I used to escape home on our afternoon siesta and sneak to the backdoor to meet my friends who waited for me because we agreed to climb guava trees in the woods. Those days were like my Independence days not minding if I will be scolded once I'll get caught, those were somehow “laugh now cry later” moments but I never felt even an inch of regret at all.

I could describe my world as a door half closed to society but eventually it opened a window into the world of unknown. There I discovered so many friends, we don’t play but we talk, yes, we talk a lot. I found friendship not on people, not on my childhood friends but on things living or non-living, existing or not. Yes, you have read it right I came to befriend living and non-living things, existing or not existing but not on people. The very first one and my most favorite was that big “Calamansi” or lemon tree on our backyard. I loved climbing it when I saw little and savor its very sour fruit. Until I found myself talking to it not just once a week, twice a week or thrice a week but more than four times a week. I loved the company of that lemon tree because it’s far from people, it’s hidden behind our small house. Our conversation was not in a way that we exchange thoughts, it was just merely like I was talking to myself in front of the tree but I imagine and I can feel that the response comes from the tree. Through the passing times, I learned to love my lemon tree friend but for an unknown reason it died.

It made me very sad and I felt like I lost a friend, so everyday I really never forget to bring it flowers. Then, my mother really wondered why there are flowers hanged on the tree. Months after, my father discovered I developed an anemia when he noticed that I am always pale and dizzy and until now I still have it may be it is a remembrance from my tree friend.

As I get older, I have developed more silent friends and only in my college days I knew that people call them imaginary friends.

When I was a freshman student, there was a scenario when Malley, my human bestfriend caught me talking to my locker in our dormitory. She was worried about me and so I explained to her everything that I went through. Malley helped me forget my imaginary friends. I can’t even forget how she pinched me when she heard me bid goodbye to a flower while we were about to leave our dormitory on a weekend.

At this time my imaginary friends are already part of my history. They were my long-time friends who gave me comfort and friendship. A friend so true, who never lied to me, who never backstabbed me, who never betrayed me like humans do. They might be imaginary but for me they were true. They listened without complains when I needed to speak my whole heart out. They relieved me during my lonely days. With them, I never felt lonely whenever I’m alone because I know I have a company. Even if they don’t talk, even if they don’t hug me back, even if they don’t laugh if I talk silly, I felt the warmth of their soul and the genuineness of our unique but real friendship. They don’t smile, but during those times that I was with them I was happy. They are imaginary but real. The friends God gave me to hold on to so I won’t be lonely.

Thank you for sparing your time reading this article. Have a nice day.