Now ignore what you have in mind
Even if you see a radioactive sign
Just look carefully at the screen
For now I’m about to begin

I am 13. I have to admit that I am not friendly. But nor am I a bad girl. I am not ugly either. I look alright. Perhaps even better than alright. But what saddens me most in living is that I never had a best friend. Never, in my whole life. I feel like I don’t belong anywhere, and people get mad at me, or only like me under certain conditions. Life is so sad for me, especially when I have family problems, and all the friends I have are just multiplying the stress.
That was before I met this far-away friend in Kansas. She is Jesse, my pen-pal who found my name in KSC pen-pal club and e-mailed me. I still remember her first letter to me, “When I speak, people listen. Just remove the word ‘listen’ and replace with ‘ignore me’, and you have a perfect me.”
Jesse is a cute little girl. She has long dark blonde hair and bluer-than-blue eyes. Her favorite colors are green, blue, purple and turquoise. Her favorite quote is “Don’t worry about knowing people, make YOURSELF worth knowing”. It has inspired me in my life ever since the first time I’ve heard of it. Jesse wants to be a full-time writer when she grows up and her biggest dream in life is to have a medieval castle of her own, whenever she reaches 1 million dollars of selling her books. As you can see in the little description about her, she is unique and special, though she doesn’t think she is.
Jesse is a writer, and she’s absolutely wise in choosing her words. Sometimes she makes me laugh, and sometimes she makes me cry, for a friendship without laughter is boring, but a friendship without tears isn’t real. If you're the type of person who just read, you wouldn’t feel a thing. You have to read, understand, remember, imagine and feel it. Then you will know how a bunch of words can give an effect to your entire feeling.
We snail-mail to each other. She never lets me feel lonely. Almost everyday, there is a super-long letter waiting for me in my mailbox. That’s what making me loves her even more. We also write whisper letters. It is like you imagine that the person you are writing to is right beside you at the moment.
Sometimes, I wish that I can REALLY meet her in real life, not just in whisper letters. I wish we can have a small cottage and stay there on autumn—which is our favorite season—when the birches in the hollow turned as golden as sunshine…And the maples behind the orchard were royal crimson… the wild cherry trees along the lane put on the loveliest shades of dark red and bronzy green, while the fields sunned themselves in aftermaths. It is not too hot or too cold. Then Jesse and I will lie on the grass in overalls while reading books together.
But I think all my wishes are impossible because we live so far, far away from each other. That's what I'm sad about. I do realize that although she lives on the other side of the world, we still share the same planet and we can see the same moon, the same stars… and she’s still in my heart. So, I have vowed to myself that I will continue to wish and wish and wish until all of them become a reality one day.
What I like most about her is that Jesse seems to be the one person on the planet who at least HALF understands me, and at least she FULLY wants to try. She had taught me a lot of things. This person, she has almost all images of a perfect friend for me. She listens to me when I ramble on about nonsense that is important to me, she believes in me even when I do not believe in myself, she always takes time to imagine and is not scared to dream, she respects my ideas and thoughts and dreams, she tries to make sense of my nonsense, she tries her best to encourage me on each random interest I end up doing, she reads my writings and she always cares. You see, anyone could do that if they tried. But I don’t want ANYONE trying to be that. I want to have someone who already is. And SHE is the person.
She is the most precious friend I have. As she asked to be my bosom friend, to do very special things together and never leave each other, it had really touched my heart, because no one ever appreciates me before.
I often make a list of all my good friends, to see which one is the very best. There were a few who caught my eyes, but Jesse, she shone out like a star. She is going to be my best friend now and always.
So, when you think about it, sometimes it’s not only people around you that can be your best friend. Sometimes, it’s someone who is far away. Jesse, if you’re reading this, I would like to say thank you for everything. I love you.

The End

Story by: Raja Ummi, age 13, Malaysia