Full Name

Professor

Subject

Due date

Describing a Personal Artifact

“Our journey that shouldn’t have ended”.

Friends are pieces of a much larger puzzle. It is a fragment of love and peace.

I've always envisioned myself sharing a large mansion with my friends. We were all

partners in the business that we were establishing. Every time we closed a significant sale, we

would rejoice and party outside all night. When we have enough money to rest while traveling in

our own private jet, ship, or even submarine so we could see the underwater world, we would

embark on adventures. We would raise a glass in honor of even the smallest victory. Even in a

wedding, we would serve as each other's maid of honor or best man. We would throw a reunion

to celebrate our friendships, inviting even our families.

They are the individuals that radically altered my life. the individuals I had imagined

spending the rest of my days with. the individuals with whom I exchanged the most joyful

memories, heartbreaking heartbreaks, and humorous moments. I have always known that the day

will come when we shall part ways. I just didn't think it would happen so quickly.

The first picture of my best group of pals is what I chose as my personal relic because it

is the item, I cherish the most. A picture of the most amazing folks I have ever met. A picture

that encapsulates all the moments we've shared over the course of our friendship. A picture that
is priceless to me. It’s the most valuable thing I was able to keep from our friendship that should

have lasted a lifetime.

After parting ways with old pals, most people simply go on and ultimately meet new

people. I freely acknowledge that I now hang out with a new group of pals, and I enjoy it. They

make me laugh and smile, and they truly connect with me. There’s this song where it says;

“Meet new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other’s gold”. I eventually made new

friends while still remaining in touch with my old ones. I would still reach out to them and ask if

they want to hangout. Although most of them still hangout with me whenever we have free time,

there are those who aren’t too approachable. I still yearn the day that I get to ask them out and be

able to spend more time with them.

I greatly value the relationships that I have with friends. I handle it delicately, as if one

error could cause everything to crumble. Think about living a lonely life every day. Eat by

yourself. Playing by yourself. You can't even hang out with anyone after class, so you go home

alone. Even though I was still in elementary school and rather young, I experienced alienation

when I changed schools. However, once I entered high school, I made the best pals. I belonged

to a group of people where, despite our disparate hobbies, personalities, and worldviews, we

managed to mesh well. like a machine's gears turning in unison.

I stopped dining alone after that. I stopped playing by myself. After class, I can at last

hang out with someone. Going to a mall just to window shop, to a restaurant to chip in and buy

food for the group. In a friend's home, we enjoyed watching movies together or just talking about

funny things that had happened during the day. It's like spending time with folks who genuinely

comprehend you. To ensure that I would never forget it, I went above and beyond and printed

out some of the photos we took to save the memories.

 Has anyone ever experienced what it's like to be at peace? Because for me, tranquility

comes from being around them. to hopefully be able to spend my entire life with them and be

able to enjoy their companionship every day. Every day I am excited by their existence alone,

and it gets even better when I have no idea what we will do in the days to come.

On some days, even if not everyone could attend, we would go on unplanned hangouts.

We would each surprise the other on our birthdays. Even though I confess it wasn't very

unexpected and was a little bit obvious, it's the thought that counts.

Imagine having that many soulmates. They accept you as you are. They adore you for

who you are, not for what you might be able to do for them. I am aware that my inner child is

speaking, yet whenever I am with them, I do wish that the day would never end.

However, there will always be terrible days mixed in with the good ones. where

miscommunications happen and the mood is just ruined. We would get into arguments about the

silliest things. Of course, we most of the time make up with each other, but there are still days

where we choose to be close minded individuals. We wouldn’t swallow our prides just to prove

that the other party was wrong.

Our group was large, and smaller divisions developed inside the groups. We split into

groups with individuals we believed to be closest to us because we recognized we couldn't totally

trust everyone. We grew suspicious of one another, trying to figure out who said what to whom.

We gradually had trust issues and it grew worse and worse as days go by.

More misunderstandings then abruptly began to surface. We were unable to express

ourselves clearly. to share our true feelings and to apologize for our actions. Things eventually

became awkward and we continued in our respective groups.

 It was the twenty-seventh of February, year 2017, when our group conversation came to

an end. We weren’t able to listen to both sides of the stories and just kept on clashing with one

another. We became intoxicated by our pride. For me, that day will always be the most heart-

breaking day. Till this day, it haunts me, thinking it was all my fault. I blamed myself for days,

months and years. Some would say that February is the most romantic month of the year, but

every year, every twenty-seventh of that month, I would just cry and blame myself for what

happened. I guess this is another type of love and another type of pain. To lose the individuals

you thought would stay by your side forever.

There was a time when I heard a famous line in Lilo & Stitch; “Ohana means family,

family means no one gets left behind.” The peak of our friendship was when we really felt like a

family. But, why does it feel like I’m the only one that was left behind. The only one clinging on

the past. I do wonder when you felt the same way too, that for a moment, we truly were a family.

What if your greatest “what if” came back? It is a cliché line and it was originally meant

for an ex-lover. But you wouldn’t blame me if I said that I did love them, more than friends at

that. As cliché as the line is, they truly are my greatest “what if”. To constantly wonder if things

would have gone differently if some of us just put our pride down. Would we still be hanging out

till this day? Would we still be talking about the silliest thing that happened during the day.

I admit that this picture, this relic, this piece of memory, this fragment that one

symbolized the love of our friendship, is the only thing I am clinging on. The only thing that

makes me hopeful of the day when we could all hang out together.
 Even though the pictures we took back then are still here, the people we took them with

are no longer there. It is a sad and unfortunate story that continues to this day. I still wait for the

sequel to the story. I would have demanded a second season if it had been a movie.

I will continue to hold on to this picture. I will continue to hope for the best. I will

continue to treasure the moments we shared. And I will continue to keep clinging on the past. I

know I haven’t moved on from the past, but I don’t regret the day I met them, and I wouldn’t

mind meeting them all over again. I am still waiting for that day, the day when I get to say sorry

for every single thing that I did and hopefully be able to forgive myself as well. I wish I could

have said, what I’m saying now. I know we never meant to break each other’s hearts, to tear us

apart like that. I just wish that I could go back to, back then, back when we were more than

friends.

I know that the personal artifact that we should choose has a physical body, that’s why I

chose this picture of us. But maybe, what I chose all along is not the picture itself, but what it

represents. The best circle of friends.