Behind The Blog #3 – Looking Back; Childhood Friends

Behind the Blog is a meme to help bloggers connect their life and interests to the content showcased on their blog. The co-hosts, Faye, Kathe, and Melissa will provide a different topic, idea, or question every week that bloggers can relate to themselves and the books, films, or other media they find interesting!

This week we’re diving into our past and talking about our childhood friends! Everyone has a friend or two in one’s childhood who are impossible to forget and who may have set the trend for coming friends (or who was the one exception). Who was your childhood best friend? How did he/she change your life? Regarding books/films: Which pairs or groups of childhood friends do you love? What do you particularly enjoy about them?

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So, I was going to write this post about one person who has always been in my life, who was always by my side, except during secondary school (highschool), but as I started writing it, I realised that there was someone else who I realised needed to be mentioned because if there was anyone who could truly stipulate the term ‘childhood friend’, it is her. Let’s think back now, to almost twenty-two years ago, on July 14th 1990. My mother is sweating profusely; she is in labour. On the bed opposite her is another woman, also in labour. They start chatting and realise they live only five minutes away from each other. Then, the first woman gets rushed off because she’s giving birth. Six hours later, my mother is then giving birth too. Thus begins the friendship between me and my friend Katie.

Of course, being that we were newborn babies, this part of our lives I have no recollection of whatsoever, but I am told that we saw each other for the first three years of our lives but then we ended up going to different nurseries and our mothers just… grew apart. Then at nursery I met a boy. I spent all my time with this boy. In fact, there are stories (and some I vaguely remember) of us refusing to spend time with any of the other people in the class. It turns out that this boy is now my step-brother. Of course, we were none-the-wiser at the time. So, we spent our time together in nursery and then, when my parents divorced, I would see him every Friday too.

We then went to primary school (reception-year 6) together, where once again we were practically inseparable. We did, eventually get friends outside of the two of us but almost like clockwork, every single day he would come round to my house and we would play and then every friday and every other weekend, I would be at his. According to my parents, we were “quite the pair”. He was, without a doubt, my best friend (and there are home videos that prove it). Then, eventually, we finished year 6 and we both went to secondary school (year 7-11). However, we didn’t end up at the same school. For the first time since we were kids, we were split up and soon he stopped coming round to my house and I only saw him when I went round to my dads.

Fortunately, however, at secondary school I met a girl who was born on the same day as me. I was surprised at this, ran home to tell my mum and she asks if her name was Katie, and I replied yes, but how do you know? Thus the tale of my first friend is told to me (and I’m supposing Katie as well), and then we instantly became friends. It’s been a bumpy road with us. In our second year of secondary school we had an argument and stopped talking for two years but finally we burnt bridges and made up again. Now, as it stands, we are not always together, we haven’t taken the same journey in life but she is the one person that, when I see her, it feels like we were never apart. We talk about our lives together and I know that we have been through our share of hurt and pain but that it has made us stronger. I also know, that she will be a friend for life. It doesn’t matter if we don’t speak for three or four years, if she turns up on my doorstep without explanation, crying, I would pull her inside and be there for her; no questions asked. She is the one who has explained to me what friendship is and we will never stop being friends.

Going back again, when I went to college (year 12-13), I ended up at the same one as my step brother. Here we had one class together; film studies. But, it was almost as though we had never been separated. We easily became great friends again and while we still had our own friends and I still only saw him at my dads on the weekends, it was great to have that time with him again. It was like our bond became closer again now that we saw each other a fair few times a week and I liked it. He confided in me and it was great. Then, when it was all over and done with, it was he who came to Canada with me when we were both just 18. Since then, we have drifted apart again, being at different uni’s and such but I know that he’ll always be there and that it’s easy to just get back into the flow of being friends when I see him at Christmas and the like. He has been a great friend and is one that I can imagine will be there for many years to come.

So, there we have it. The story of my two childhood friends who have impacted me greatly throughout my life. They are, in fact, the only two people that I am still in contact with from my childhood so in a way, I cherish them that much more because of it.

Largely due to the fact that I’m starting to get tired now and my brain hurts, but I am going to do a fairly simple inclusion of books into this post. These “childhood friends” are staples for me. I grew up with them myself, I witnessed their friendships bloom and they helped to teach me a lot about my own friendships. I admired them. I wanted to be them. I wanted them to be my friends. I am, of course, talking about….

THE GOLDEN TRIO
Yeap, that’s right. My favourite childhood friends in books are Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger.

To me, these three simply define friendship. Even when you think your friend is barking mad, you stick by their side. If you feel like they’re lying to you, you tell them about it, you fight but you always make up. They fight side by side, they make decisions together and they just never, never falter in their friendship and it is this true friendship that I hope to one day find myself – if I haven’t already found it!

I’m somewhat going to cheat for this section because the film I’m choosing that, to me, shows an influential childhood friend is actually an adaptation from a book but I just feel that it is too powerful not to mention. This friendship changed everything. For both characters and it led them on two different and interesting paths that simply cannot be ignored. How they became friends, how they spent their time, what they did for each other and how it all, ultimately, ended truly changed their lives and I have just always loved their story. I am talking about;

AMIR & HASSAN
From The Kite Runner (2007)

This film has been in my top ten since I watched it in the cinema (and then raced out and bought the book which is one of the best books I’ve ever read), and I simply love the story that unfolds. This isn’t a childhood friendship that is full of love and happiness, but it is one that is full of loyalty and misunderstanding and mistakes and I just love it. If you haven’t read or watched it, you need to do that!

What about you? Who is your childhood friend? What books or films portrayed great childhood friends to you?

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