To See You Once Again, Maya

Farewells are hard, especially when best friends are involved.

One of my best friends, Maya, left Singapore for good over the weekend. I had a long time to get used to the idea of her leaving, since she announced this decision to do so around three months ago, which is probably why I didn’t bawl like a baby when she left.

On the afternoon of her last day in Singapore, we had a karaoke session in a newly discovered place in Pasir Ris. The place is called Ten Dollar Club because it only costs $10 per person for 5 hours of karaoke and bottomless drinks. You could even order food from their partner and they had lots of old and new songs, and even Tagalog ones! Why didn’t we know about this place before? Tsk tsk.

Maya’s most favorite hobby is singing, so we knew she would enjoy this one last chance to do so in this country where she lived for four years. Huge thanks to Jemma for organizing this!

While we were singing a Westlife classic, I suddenly realized that we could change the words “my love” to Maya, and pretty soon, we all chimed in to sing this:

So I say a little prayer
And hope my dreams will take me there
Where the skies are blue
To see you once again, Maya

Overseas and coast to coast
To find the place I love the most
Where the fields are green
To see you once again, Maya

Several ginger teas later, we sadly vacated the premises, with the last song (Backstreet Boys’ All I Have to Give) still ringing in our ears.

We then went to the airport and had dinner at Swensen’s, where we had a lively discussion about the most famous Mayas and Annes and Maries (all her names/nicknames) in history. Gay and Leo joined us there.

I then asked Maya the question I like to ask everyone who leaves: “Except for the people because you will obviously miss us, duh, what will you miss in Singapore?”

“I will definitely miss feeling safe and secure,” she responded, to which we all nodded in agreement. “Also the aircon.”

She then explained that all of Singapore indoors places are air conditioned, and the only time we ever feel hot is when we have to walk from one indoor point to another, like when you have to walk from your house to the bus, then from the bus to the MRT. Haha.

After polishing off our meals and desserts, we brought Maya to the departure area, where we hugged her goodbye and bid her well and hoped to see her soon. She will definitely be missed, but we are happy for her because she is finally fulfilling a long time dream of going back home.

Dear Maya,

I remember you once told me that you are excited to read my old blog posts and reminisce about our moments together, so I decided to do you a favor and make that a lot easier for you by collating all the posts that have you in them.

Call this a throwback Thursday, if you will.

Have fun reading and reminiscing and see you next year! 🙂