This Will Make You Think: Are You Accountable?

Hello everyone! Another week has passed and cheers for another week to come full of goals and hopes. Do you have any plans for this coming week?

My plan for this week is to be mindful of all my actions. It's been weeks of sleeping at 3am in the morning then waking up past 10am. My head hurts in that kind of lifestyle and I want to change it this coming week.

Anyway, in this article I will not talk about my plans, rather, I'll ask you a question. Maybe you already have an idea of what it is because of the title of this article.

Are you accountable?

Accountability is a big responsibility and we play this role more often than not. Let me share with you why I am asking this question.

My high school friend who now lives in Australia came back for a short vacation here in the Philippines and he invited us (his close friends in high school) for a get together and of course, to celebrate his birthday. We were almost 50 students in a class then but he invited only a few because we're not that close anymore with the others.

In any high school class setting, there will always be a group or a circle of friends, usually we have a name hahaha like Mean Girls, The BackStreet Boys, and so on but we don't use that one, I was just setting some examples. Let me introduce to you the groups we have:

Tropang Mini-Stop (TMS)

This is my circle of friends, consists of 8 people. We are the ones who were always at the top or honors in our class, the slots for Top 1 to Top 7 are reserved already for us because of our grades. Our other friend struggles to make it to the top but he's the life of the party.

Bgirls

If I was not in TMS, I might be here. These four girls are my besties. They always talk about fashion. The kikay girls, the pretty ones. Since I already have my own group, I can't commit to them full time but you can find me hanging out with them most of the time.

Tropang Rain or Shine (TROS)

These are the boys' circle of friends. If I remembered it correctly, they're all 12 boys. I can say all of them are my close friends, and most of them tried to court me back in high school until college. They're the sweetest set of friends I have because they support me whenever I venture into something new.

Tropang Plastic Labo (TPL)

This group was created because of our Science Fair. We competed for the fair and ended up creating a new set of friends. This is my wholesome set of friends, the green-minded ones, if you know what I mean.

...and the rest are nameless group of friends.

Because of these friendships, we became one. Whenever there are birthday celebrations, we invite each group through their representatives, our close ones.

Back to when we gathered for Al's birthday (the one from Australia). We were talking of what happened to each other's lives. You know, back when I was younger, I always question why the adults are afraid of reunions. I mean, you'll get to see your friends, aren't you excited? But when I encountered gatherings, I noticed the same set of questions. What's your job now? How's your family? Are you married already? Why? These kind of questions are anxiety-inducing ones.

That's why when we attended his birthday, all I did was to ask if my friends are happy with the lives they have now. You'll see it in their faces if they are or not. No need to ask how much money they are making, or if they're already married and got kids at an early age. We are all struggling and facing our own battles.

Talking about life, we talked about our classmate who died last year due to kidney failure. One of my friends from Bgirls was suspicious back then because our classmate keep on going to the hospital where she works for laboratory tests. It's been months, she said. She informed our friend from TROS about our classmate's situation but she did not disclose everything for he is a patient. Sadly, our friend from TROS did not mention it to the others.

We didn't know he needed blood donations. We didn't know he was struggling financially. We didn't know about his situation. Not until we heard the news from his family, that he was gone.

Now, the question is, are we accountable for our friend's life?

As a friend, we could have done something to help him. We could've donated some blood. We could've helped him financially but we didn't. One thing I learned from this is to always check on my friends. It seems impossible for them to open up when we ask the question How are you? but we shouldn't stop there.

We may or may not be accountable for our friends' lives but for me it's a loss if I lost a friend, knowing I didn't even do a single thing to help them when they're struggling.

What's your two cents about this? Are we accountable?

Special thanks to @Expelliarmus30 for the renewal of sponsorship 💖

June 26, 2022