Our Story : The Beginning – Part 1

Life has a funny way of surprising us, doesn’t it? You go through your days, not paying much attention to the world around you. Then, out of the blue, you meet someone who becomes your everything, someone you can’t imagine your life without. People often say, “The moment I laid my eyes on you, I knew you were the one.” I’m sure that’s how most love stories begin. But for me and AS, our story was a bit different.

Let me take you back to the beginning.

I first met AS in high school. To be honest, I can’t recall the exact moment we first saw or spoke to each other. With 52 students in our class, it took me a while to remember everyone’s name. Over time, I found myself spending more time with a certain group of friends, and AS was part of that circle. We got to know each other gradually, always in the company of others.

Our school organised hikes every few months, and our group would often join in. We also frequented the library, restaurants, and even went to tuition together, spending a lot of time in each other’s company. Though we rarely spent time alone, I do remember walking back from the library with him a few times. We visited each other’s homes occasionally with other friends. I distinctly remember having lunch at his place once, cooked by his mum. At my place, he still teases me about the undercooked instant noodles I served him for lunch.

Back then, I was a tomboy who enjoyed the company of boys more than girls. I had only four female friends but many male ones. I liked AS as a friend, but it never crossed my mind that he could be more than that.

There were a few reasons why. AS was a nice guy who studied hard and did well in class. He was always there when I needed help, and I liked his smile. But he was soft-spoken and shy, the opposite of my loud and extroverted self. Yet, I could never forget his smile. Years after high school, whenever someone mentioned him, it was his smile that came to mind.

After high school, we went our separate ways. I moved to Australia for further studies, and AS went to India for engineering. We emailed each other maybe twice a year, and it was usually me initiating the contact. He would take months to reply, often popping up out of nowhere with a brief email, then disappearing again. His behaviour annoyed me, but I accepted it.

Whenever I visited Nepal from Australia, I’d email my friends to see if anyone would be around. Somehow, AS and I always missed each other. He’d either just left or was arriving shortly after my departure. We didn’t meet for a long time.

Remember Hi5, the social network before Facebook? I had an account and invited all my friends, including AS. He joined but never updated his profile, making it rather useless.

We continued our lives 1000 miles apart, mostly unaware of what the other was up to. AS occasionally checked my Hi5 account, as he later admitted.

After graduation, I started traveling. One trip took me to the USA. I planned to meet as many friends as possible, including AS, who was in LA. I emailed everyone months in advance  and many friends emailed me back and I start making my plans according to that., but AS, predictably, didn’t respond. I was really annoyed as I considered him a good friend; it would have been good to catch up with him.

The day before my flight, I was checking my email and to my surprise, I saw one from him. Seriously, after more than 5 months, he was replying to me.

His email was something like this

“Hello,

Looks like I caught you right on time,

I am in LA these days and here is my number XXXXXXX. Please call me when you get here.

Have a safe flight.

AS”

I was really annoyed with the email as I could imagine his smiley face typing those words. Anyway I saved his number on my phone and waited for my holiday to start.

It was a long flight to the US but I was really excited as it was my first big trip. I had a friend picking me up in LA and I was staying with him and his aunt. He and his aunt had made many plans for me so when I landed in the US, I didn’t call AS straight away. There were so many things to do and see that the time flew so two days before I was to leave LA I called him to check if he had anytime to meet me before I flew out. We couldn’t work out a time that suited both of us so I travelled around Pennsylvania, Niagara Falls, Toronto, New York, and Florida.

DC

Niagara Falls

Disney world

NYC Bull

NYPD

I didn’t have any hope of meeting AS because on my way back to Australia, I had only 12 hours in LA which I was planning to spend in the airport. I didn’t want to complicate things by by going out.

Around the end of my holiday, AS called me up and asked my schedule in LA on my way back. I told him my plan. I was a bit annoyed with him that he hadn’t met me. I told him if he really has time, he can come to the airport as I won’t be able to travel to where he is. I was half expecting him to say he was busy but he said he would come. I was glad to have some company during my stopover.

After having an awesome time with my friends and family, finally I landed in LA. While walking out from the terminal, I was thinking that I didn’t have a mobile phone so if AS didn’t show up (which was quite possible) as we had planned I would be alone for more than 12 hours in the airport. I had my laptop with me so I planned to surf the internet to kill time. I came out and went to collect my baggage. I saw my bags coming out and was about to take the bags from the carousel and those bags were super heavy. I had done so much shopping that I was having a hard time lifting my suitcase. Then there he was. YES, AS actually made it to the airport to meet me. And he was there helping me lift my bags onto a trolley.

The post is getting long so I will write more in next post. Hope you will come back and read more  🙂

Go to Part 2

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