We will be celebrating a special belated birthday with Leung on the blog today! This past week has been brain boggling ride, with midterms, labs, and errands to run… just like any other week, leaving us no time to celebrate other than a short dinner outing a day after Leung’s actual birthday.

And I still haven’t finished her birthday gift… but it’s okay because we know each other too well to care (or maybe I’m just trying to comfort myself which is most likely the case). Despite only befriended Leung in grade 10, I feel like I’ve known her forever, and I am so so so grateful to have found her in my life. This blog wouldn’t have existed if we haven’t been enrolled in the same planning/phys ed. class! I guess the quote “everything happens for a reason” is really true.

I’m writing this post on the blog so late because I didn’t want Leung to open it before it is published, and I am assured that she’s asleep right now probably snoozing away (probably already in her first REM sleep stage too; shoutout to psychology 101 for enlightening me about sleep while I was sleep-deprived trying to read the whole entire textbook in one night). I just wanted to let Leung know my appreciation for being such an extraordinary friend, someone I can always count on.

So when you’re reading this, thank you so much for always being there for me. Whenever something is wrong and I reach out to you, you’d always be the first one to reply and sympathize no matter the situation. I remember at the beginning of the year when somebody stole my phone and wallet from my backpack after a horrible exam, and you genuinely cared about the situation and comforted me with your words. I remember when I needed help with some chemistry and you’d just come to the library after class to help even though you were probably wanting to go home and make yourself some food to eat. I remember when we both gagged exactly the same time when the “unconditional stimulus” of the guy’s daily “fragrant” take-out breakfast would be pulled out of his backpack and the whole lecture hall would smell like rotten eggs and ketchup, and quite frankly, I don’t understand how other students aren’t bothered by the smell; I am concerned of his health. Like are his cholesterol levels even okay? I remember when you made me that quinoa almond butter cabbage salad thing and a whole bunch of other things that you’d pack in a container and pass on to me during English class even when our schedules were so tight that we both haven’t had hot meals in 2 weeks. And the container-passing-back-and-forth game is still going strong, but stop ruining it by putting homemade granola in a ziploc bag because it’s cheating and I don’t appreciate it. But I do appreciate every little thing you do for me (if I list them all here, this post would be infinite and the recipe will be on page 10), and I sure hope I am as good of a friend as you are to me. For now, I wish you the very best days of your life in this first year delving into adulthood, and I cannot wait to see what adventures unfold and what opportunities lie ahead! Oh, and I apologize for manipulating you into a major goofball and I want to thank you for sticking up with my daily bad puns, insanely wacky ideas, and completely random unfiltered out-of-context thoughts.

Regarding the cake, I thought since coconut is pretty much your favourite thing ever, and cookie dough is on the list of both of our favourite things, I thought it would be safe to make a coconut cake, with cookie dough frosting and cookie dough gobs in the middle of the two layers. I hope I succeeded into making your tastebuds smile, but the cake you made me was way more aesthetically pleasing than my so-tilted-it’s-almost-lateral square cake. Let’s go on an Ikea adventure so I can get myself a mini circular cake pan. And photo props. Then we should go mini golfing because that’s a weird combo and I like weird. Weird is my thing.