the art of make-believe: an essay entry for ENG 48.

It was my best friend’s graduation yesterday, and I wanted to give him something as a graduation present. Before I went to see him, I contemplated if I still needed to wrap the sign pen that I was going to hand to him. In my mind I knew he’s the type of person who didn’t care too much about gift-wrapping, but since I have been a firm believer in presenting gifts in a rather formal way, and in an occasion such as this no less, I finally decided to succumb to the practice.

It would have seemed odd to people, who didn’t know of our history, that I chose to give a pen of all things symbolic to our friendship, but I didn’t need to explain how it was a special thing. When I finally showed my best friend the reason why I asked him to see me that afternoon, he might already had known what was underneath the carefully crafted covering even before he had it in his hands. Even so, there was something arcane about wrapped presents, something that creates that unique moment in spite of our own private coffee time. It was ironic that my friend still held the gift carefully despite the anticipation and started to open the layers of paper cautiously. That smile that formed on his face told me that wrapping this seemingly unimportant thing was worth it. It certainly created the mood of eagerness of receiving a memory.