How Events Equal To Relations

You are shy, caught up in the daily grind and aren’t usually engaged in optional events or voluntary activities? Or maybe you know someone who is? Trust me, one should definitely go for the optional events and activities as enthusiastically as a kid on Christmas. I’ve been through it myself 🤷‍♀️ Many of my best friends are in my life because I went for those opportunities.

One such time was how I met one of my current best friends. I was in the 8th standard and I was in the student council. In an event, I had been given the responsibility of supervising the  students who were escorting parents inside the venue. Apart from one or two, I knew most of the kids with whom I was supposed to deal with. So I had a new acquaintance or two now.

When I came in 9th grade the sections were shuffled and I landed with a whole new lot of people. (Though I was phenomenally fortunate to end up in the same class as my best friend 🍀) Guess who was the first person I got familiar  with after the people from my previous class? Of course the acquaintance. (I definitely do feel bad about addressing my now best friend as an acquaintance🙃) 

With the progress of time, we became more than acquaintances. For me, it was the time we spent doing stuff like decorating the display board of our class or organising the class cupboard, or better yet, finding the class smartboard keys😂😂 that enhanced and strengthened our friendship. (I can actually feel my best friends staring at me giving me the most annoying looks and mentally making some wicked plan 🙄)

Speaking of friendship, I had also met two of my friends, brothers rather (because that is the relationship I share with them) because of a school event. Teachers’ Day to be precise. I’d say we were brought together rather than the fact we met. By our teachers.

I had terribly goofed up on the stage. 

But they had my back. They didn’t let even a single ill-intended comment reach me. If it hadn’t been for them, I think I would never be able to speak on a stage. They were my mentors, for the event and beyond the coach relationship too. 

You know when you practice with people, spend a major chunk of your day with them, they become a part of your life and you become a part of their life. One day, when I was just hanging out with them, one of them said, “She’s a part of our gang now”. And honestly it meant the world to me at that point. I might not have said anything, but I was beaming ear to  ear and was actually on the verge of crying. Now they’ll be one of the first people to know something important about me and I literally demand to know about them when they forget to tell me. All of their friends know me and all of mine know them. 

I was definitely the one in the group who was naive, to whom everything had to be explained. But any of that never bothered them. (They’re not in the school anymore and I’m pretty sure i’ll have a hard time when schools actually open) It is weird for me to see them as anything apart from being my brother. I know I can count on them for advice. Like yesterday when I asked one of them for advice whether to go for another MUN or not. 

Which reminds me of another friend I made through MUN (and technically I made it through MUN because of him 😅) He was my alliance, rather many delegates’ alliance because he was the delegate of the USA. I got to really appreciate and see how the brains of students outside my own school work. I must say I was really impressed by USA’s witty replies that always made it on time without openly offending anyone. And like he said, MUN’s entire purpose is for you to know new people and build a network. And I think I accomplished that even if it was only for a handful of people. I was helped a lot by him since I was a beginner. This made me realise that it doesn’t matter if events are online or live. What matters is the human connections you make and what you learn from that program. 

You know everyone does the compulsory, mandatory things. What makes you different from me is the things we do by our choice, things that are not compulsory but we still do just because we want to. They make all the difference. If all of us did the same things, would the world still be so diverse and so unique in each of its parts? 

Events and functions hold the immense power of pairing us with people who we have never met and otherwise would never be able to meet. It’s like a way of the universe of making you meet new people, but that cannot happen if you don’t go to that place or don’t participate in that event. 

Imagine how many of your connections you might have missed because you didn’t attend that party or you missed the opportunity of making a close friend just because you passed up on that extra shift or dance practice in school. 

Now you know why to go everywhere and anywhere. Just think of it as a surprise waiting to happen, like a new chapter of your life waiting to unfold. You never know who is waiting to befriend you. All, literally all, you have to do is reach that place and everything else will just flow. And before you know, you’ll have new people in your life that are so very important to you.

Send this to the friend who you think really needs to participate more so that the wonders in their life can take place too. And let me know if you met someone because of an event too.