I was so excited as I passed my matric and I would soon be going to Vereeniging to further my studies. My mom has always been my pillar of strength and my best friend; we would fight but then after five minutes we would be talking to each other again. She is an angel. I still remember when I couldn’t sleep just thinking about my first day and college, wondering if I’d cope with everything, or if I would be able to make friends.

In the morning, my uncle came with his Ford van to pick me up and take me to Vereeniging. I was nervous and excited, I couldn’t believe I would be all alone in another province, with no family and friends. The journey was quiet. We started at my accommodation and went to school to pay my registration. The line was long but we waited till I finished and got my books and class schedule. It was so sad to say goodbye to my family. I can’t believe I cried when they were about to leave. We shed tears of joy and I could see my mom was scared to leave me alone but they eventually left me.

My roommate was quite an outgoing person as she had a boyfriend already and he has come to take her for a sleep over, I was so lonely. I just wanted to sleep and go to class the next day. I had an early class so I woke up at 6am to take a shower and be a little early to adjust to everything at school, here I was going to school alone not having my best friend beside me laughing loud and talking about my crush and her boyfriend. Eventually, I arrived and I was the first one in class. Well there was no boy in our class it was all girls, they seemed funny and chilled.

I made friends with Karabo and Tlholohelo. They were the best I could ask for, as weeks went by I totally forgot about my bestie I left at home.

One day we were going to the kitchen to warm up our lunch, as we didn’t have money for take outs. There he was staring at me, not saying anything, he just greeted me and asked if he could warm up his food first because he was in a hurry.

“Cool,” I said.
From that time on, he was everywhere. I saw him everywhere at school until he came and asked for my name. I can still recall he said, “Shortie, can I please get your name?”

Oh! He made me blush. I gave him my name and he gave me his name too. His name was Thabo. We started hanging out a lot and I forgot about my new friends. They were so angry that I had forgotten about them. When I was with him everything paused, he was the only one that made sense to me. As time went by he became my number one priority. He was my first true love and my first male bestie, so he was everything I was looking for in the past years, as cute as he was I knew wsa not the only one and that made me feel insecure.

We would fight over the phone and he would assure me that all those girls meant nothing to him. I chose to believe him. He was different, when he spoke to me, he made me melt away every time. He chose me over those girls again and again till he chose to take me to meet his parents.

Karabo and Tlholohelo thought it was just six months of us dating and we are already involving parents. I told them it wasn’t my idea but they still thought we were in a hurry. I didn’t see anything wrong with it, it proved he loved and honoured me, till now we still going through with our relationship since 2018. If I had listened to my friends we wouldn’t be where we are right now.

Not all your friends are going to be right about everything. When I first saw him I knew he was my soulmate.

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Tell us: Do you agree that friends aren’t always right about your relationships?