When I joined the class with the other 25 people two years ago, at the start of our Junior College education, I didn't know what to expect.

But yet the unexpected happened.

My class has 20 girls, including myself. Within the first three days of orientation, my clique of 9 simply bonded together, another group of 8 gathered, there was a pair of twins that didn't have friends and didn't want friends, and another girl who seemed perfectly contented to be by herself. 

After two years, the other group of 8 has broken up into pairs of friends, and two from my clique have drifted away. Thinking back, I have always found it very miraculous, the way my clique seemed to have instantly recognised each other and bonded together so effortlessly. Initially, I thought that it was because we had very similar personalities.

But Jac and I were the loud aunty type. Jia yi was the optimistic, happy-go-lucky type that attracted boys effortlessly but didn't want their attention in the first place. Shin Yi was the mature type that has seen the world, and wonderful at comforting. Somehow, the truth from her lips didn't seem so bad after all. Wei ting and Xiaotong I knew from Band since Sec 1, so I have actually known them the longest. They were the 'neutral' type, Those that did not have enemies, did not strongly dislike anyone, nor publicly express such views, the type that everyone would get along with. Elaine was more reserved, seen more of the world then us, and though she seemed mature at first glance, is surprisingly vulnerable and child-like, and you just can't help but like her.

So it wasn't because we had the same personalities. Then was it the background and upbringing then?

But Shin Yi had 3 siblings and had a very chinese education. Jia Yi's mum and my mum were more western in their thinking, and I suppose we are the only two that actually spoke English at home? Jac, Wei Ting, Xiaotong, Jia Yi were all the only child at home. Sure, we watched TV and read books as a daily diet of growing up, but what we read and watched differed. What we went through, what our parents went through also differed greatly.

Then I realised something.

We are all friends because we all have problems. Because we all have problems, existing or solved, we all grew up in a certain way. We all matured in a certain way, our thinking evolved in a certain way.

And hence there is a glimmer in our eyes -- of experience, perhaps a more guarded look. There is a lilt in our speech -- the words we choose are less frivolous, are more mature and heavy, for we are not and cannot be innocent for our own sake. There is a bounce in our step -- with confidence, because we half-raised ourselves, because of what we've been through, the decisions we made have made us more independent individuals.

And because this is us, this is what makes us unique, we can spot someone like that from afar.

Love at first sight? That's just hormones raging. And once those hormones die down after a year or two, what's left are people who forgot why they fell in love.

But friends at first sight is a meeting of people who share similar or different experiences that moulded them into a specific, unique shape. Shapes that are similar, but if you look carefully, are different. Shapes that go well with each other for an inexplicable reason.

It's almost like how blue and green go so well with each other. Does anyone question why the blue sky and green fields are so beautiful, whether apart or together? No, because they just do.

Friends at first sight is a beautiful gathering of people who will never know why they met or how they became friends, but will never forget why they are still friends, perhaps even decades after they met.

That is more beautiful and to be cherished, above all.