Everyone has that special talent that makes them stand out from the crowd. When I was little I believed that dancing, singing and drawing were the only things that made a person special. So I was bummed when I realized I couldn't dance, I sounded like I swallowed a frog when I sang and my drawings?, awful is a kind way to put it.
The one thing I got was something I didn't think I wanted. I knew how to digest information about school related stuff. I loved Mathematics in particular.
Primary school was really easy, before I knew it my teachers were advicing my parents to allow me skip two grades and go straight to secondary school.
I lived in a vortex back then, surrounded by thesame people who went to thesame school. I took the exam, passed and my nine year old self was off to secondary school.
My first day was so scary. The people I called Seniors few months ago were my classmates now.
I remember sitting down quietly in the seat I was assigned to. Everyone else knew each other. They were laughing and talking.
Then she appeared out of where ever it was she came from. We went to thesame primary school but I had never for once spoken to her.
Fathia smiled at me, took my hand, dragged me out of my seat and started introducing me to everyone.
Turns out my new classmates knew who I was not like I was popular or anything but because my big brother was well known when he was in Primary School.
Fast forward time, we are best friends. There was a time we said we wouldn't participate in the Inter house sport if we were not placed in thesame house. We ended up getting our wish, we were in yellow house together which came last but at least we came last together.
A year later, she broke my heart with the saddest news. She was changing schools. I had made a lot of friends by then but it wasn't going to be thesame without her.
When she left I missed her like crazy. Who was I going to take over the world with now?.
Fathia would always find a way I realized. We didn't have the privilege that came with having a phone back then so she improvised.
I got my first letter two weeks after resumption. Someone had recently transferred to her school who had a sibling that was still in my school.
The details of the first letter is blurry in my brain but I kept one important detail. She asked if Timilehin liked anyone one else now?.
We started exchanging letters. The words became too much for single pieces of paper. So I took a book from home. One book became two, then three, after that I lost count.
A year and six months later, I moved away. I couldn't write to her anymore. Then came the perks of technology and social media. Eventually, distance took its toll on us both. We drifted apart and I lost her contact.
In my recent years, I've asked around. No one seems to know where she is right now. I guess she disappeared thesame way she appeared to me on my first day.
If I ever got to talk or see her again, I would hug her real tight and tell her something I never got to.
" Thank you"
And if she asks what for, I would say, " For just being you".
I used to wish I could sing, dance and draw. Who am I kidding, I still wish for that even now. But most of all, I wish I never left Fathia then maybe this story would have been titled,"The girl I wrote a thousand letters.