I Remember

My Besties

Growing up in Concepcion was tough, however, I managed to make great friends while there. My very best friend name was Marisol. We still good friends, just lost touch since I have been here in the USA. Mary as we call her was yira's best friend but when we came along she became all of our best friend. She knew all my deepest secrets and celebrated all of my happy days and cried when I cried too. Her family was very poor too, but they manage to eat really good everyday. They food tasted good to me anyways. She lived in the inner block of houses before our block. Her family was also extended. Her two older brothers Arturo and Toto, her older sister Mita and her younger brother Johnny and baby sister Masita lived in the same house plus her mom Tobita and dad. The house belonged to their grandmother Niko as we called her. Niko and her husband Sabino lived there too in a 3 bedrooms flat they also had a dog. There wasn't a house in the hood that didn't have two families living in them, it was normal. Only the upper class families were exempted. Marisol was humble and very trustworthy. We loved each other. She was tough, she too dropped out of school because of money issues. I'm glad I left because my future would've been shacking up with Eric and spitting babies. Marisol was the greatest friend I've ever had, the best person I 've ever known, hands down. She was perfect as a friend. We shared a piece of cracker if we had it to eat. We did everything together. She was amazing. We never fought, argued or stopped talking to each other but a few hours petty  fights like I yell a bit too much or she refused to roll my hair. Things like that, but I never had to question her loyalty. We would go down or up together, we smelled each other's breath. She would help me tow the gas tank to the store to exchange it for a full one and walk it back home from the store as heavy as it was. She would help me tow a bucket of dirty clothes to the laundromat and back and sat with me while I washed and dried my clothes. She did it with all of us. We separated when we were shipped elsewhere, she was my one of a lifetime friend. I overly loved Mary. We were honest with each other and vowed to be friends for ever until eternity. I found her on a social site and we keep in touch now a days. She is working and has a child now, but her love still the same.
I made friends in school too but the one that I connected with the most is Gladys Aizprua, My Ace koom boom. We met through Yanice then Yanice was put in an early shift in school and Gladys and I became one. I loved her to pieces. She was gorgeous a Barbie doll. She was tall, slim, red bone with long curly auburn hair. Her family was ok financially they weren't rich but they weren't starving at all. We were in the same classes in the 9th grade. Then we moved up to the 10th grade together but she had to get into the early shift too. It was only given to the kids that lived the farthest from the school it was a district rule. We had two turns in schools 7:45 to 12:45pm and the 1:00pm until 5:45pm. Depending on how far or close you lived from the school they would place you in the more convenient turn. Gladys lived in Tocumen a neighborhood about 30 minutes from my house. And 1:15 minutes from the school so they placed her in the morning shift. Panama schools are like colleges in the USA. You will only go to the one that teaches what your major is going to be. If your major is Science you'll go to a science only school, if it's financing and business, you'll go to that school, and they also have vocational technical schools. There you will go to learn a skill. Carpentry, cosmetology etc. When you are done with highschool you can go to work right away or you can choose to go to a university and finish your degree. It's optional and usually the bourgeois kids went to the university. Us poor people didn't have the resources or time to waste in the university. Titles won't help you in Panama it's who you know.
I left Panama going into my 11th grade. When I got here I took remedial courses and.got put on the 12th grade so I was all caught up with school.
With Gladys I used to have after school fun. We would get off school and get in a bus going to the city capital and ride all around down town Panama, passed the strip malls and the national parks and it will go all the way around and back home. That will guaranteed us a good seat and a roundtrip, plus we got to see the kids from other schools and flirt with the older dudes, some times we would get off at the strip mall and buy something small like lipsticks or sandals depending on how our money looked like. These days I would be home extremely late and grandma would trip. I would lie and say the busses were too full and I couldn't get on one to save my life. It was fun and it was the thing to do. Gladys and I were one. On the 10th grade I didn't have any friends just people who lived by my house that kind off stuck together. I had Eric to come get me three times a week and Alonso sometimes. My love life took a complicated turn. It was a mess.
I had other friends such as Maritzel and Bebi but they weren't a constant in my life. These two girls Mary and Gladys stamped my heart with their love and loyalty. I still communicate with them on social media. These are my eternal gifts of friendship.