When school year started for Sandra, she was ecstatic. Her face shone bright as the sun when she carried her suite case into her hostel room. Her night was filled with fantasies of how she’d have fun, new friends and study hard. You don’t need me to tell you how fast fun wins over studying.

It was during her first semester that Sandra fell out of touch with her best friend Ellie. It wasn’t out of lack of trying on both sides but rather, distance and a new environment changed a lot in their lives. They were no longer free enough for idle chatter. As years went by though, it came to be that Ellie was the friend Sandra would always turn to.

As far as the rule of friendship goes, Sandra had already acquainted herself with a few college mates, most of them being her classmates. There, she found her bird and they flocked together. Penny was the it girl. Classes were missed together, lunch hours were spent together, even missing marks were shared.

All through her first year in college, Sandra had reinvented herself to a more classy and confident woman. With Penny by her side, there were very few heights she couldn’t reach.

Having taken her sweet time to get over Tayern, Sandra had never expected to meet anyone who would speak to her heart much like he had. So, it was a pleasing shock when she found love again. It was beautiful and peaceful. He made her heart race and quieted the noises in her head. It was all so perfect that even when love came to an end, it was magical.

Having opened her heart to love again, she felt blissful every time, and thus, when she met her soulmate at a staring match (she lost every time) it felt perfect. He didn’t bring bliss nor beauty, he came with a sense of forever and the warmth of comfort. Looking back, Sandra regrets nothing because she still has her soulmate to run to each time the dire search for love fails her.

Sandra had grown to forget her past pains and revel in the joys that walked with her. She got into wrong company, her life became a party gone wrong, her blood turned into alcohol and her brains into pills. It was all just a cry for help and the men who saw it found her to be easy prey. Addiction became a need and the need became hard to not satisfy.

She tried to wash away the stain with church but even they judged her. Alone and unfound, Tayern came back and the seed that was once dead came to life. From love a child was conceived and from fear a get away was planned. What was meant to be never happened and again Sandra found herself in foreign land with no one to go home to or with.

It felt like in Sandra’s world, making friends was the most natural thing to do. With this she landed herself a job at a bar and restaurant. At eight months pregnant, she simply fell into being the favourite waitress and she even landed a nurse as a friend(I wouldn’t fail to mention the ever jovial rugby players who tipped her more than they purchased). It only took a month for her to realise this is not the simple life she had been penning for and one call to her mother had her back ‘home’ living with her grandmother, uncle and aunts. The irony was not lost on the fact that she’d given birth in the same hospital that she’d been born in. Though it was a shock to her when her baby turned out to be a baby boy, she loved him with everything in her and vowed to be a better parent.