Diary of An Anime Lived: K-ON! – Life and Separation
Our lives are always filled with meetings and farewells. When you find someone, and befriended him, or her, your two lives get intertwined and together, a bond is formed. However, “forever” technically doesn’t exist and there always come a time when one must part with his friends. In this world, there are as many greetings, as there are farewells.
Watching K-ON, I remembered my fun school days. Me and my gang are like the “Little Busters” group. We formed a group, named a leader (I’m not the one sadly), and messed around constantly. Of cause, we are somewhat of good students, though we don’t follow the school rules completely; long nails and hairstyles unfit for school are some examples rules we had broken countless times. It was so fun and memorable when all of us were trying our best to avoid our discipline master, only to shudder in despair after knowing that he was actually teaching in our class.
Likewise with K-ON, in school, our group is constantly filled with bright and energetic days brimming with activities. One time, we were playing xiangqi (Chinese chess), another time we were playing basketball, and as we were quite the otaku too, we even played Yu-Gi-Oh cards. This group of mine, is part of my former anime community so together, we had also watched quite a number of anime; Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Fate/Stay Night, Death Note, Groove Adventure Rave and so on. We also played a lot of games, and our most memorable and interactive games we played so far are Maple Story and Gunbound. Online games are all about enjoying the game with your friends, and I enjoyed those time when I could play online games with my friends during the long holidays, either grinding in a party in Maple Story or fighting with each other (or teaming against other people) in Gunbound. Such fun-filled days.
My group was obsessed with music like I used to, and we also jam together whenever we have the time. At first, it was just me, picking up the acoustic guitar solo. Then, I taught one of my friend and our musical interests spread like wildfire within the group. Guitars, drums, pianos, we even had someone who could beatbox. For those uninformed, the reason I had long nails was because of my need to use them for guitar plucking.
K-ON’s graduation scenes are one of the most relatable events for me. School graduations mark the end of one part of a person’s journey, and a beginning of a new part. All students have different routes they want to proceed with their lives, some wants to work, some wants to continue their studies, and some even went overseas. It’s this part of my life where there are less opportunities to hang out with my friends. Of cause, I still do keep in touch with them, but we could no longer have as much fun messing around as we used to. Time is another issue too as all of us now had different schedules.
During these times, we had farewell parties non-stop. One went to Australia, one went to Malaysia, one went to Taiwan and another one went to Singapore. Our friends are totally separated by now, and only a small portion of my school friends remained here in Brunei. It’s tough, saying goodbyes, but farewells are parts of one’s life as well. Besides, it’s not like this is the last time we see each other.
When you’re away from your loved ones, memories become the next best thing, as it is the only thing which still keep you and your friends within distance. Because of that, in times of goodbyes and farewells, it is important to leave behind a memento, a keepsake which will help keep those memories of the precious times you shared with your friends intact. It is indeed heartwarming in K-ON, when Yui gave Azusa a photograph of themselves, and a flower of five petals, representing the five of them. It is a simple, yet powerful gift. That scene remembered all the simple gifts I had received from the past, and while they are not anything special or expensive, the memories and past behind these gifts make them more worthy then any expensive items.
Currently, aside from some rare get-together with my ex-school friends, I also meet up with quite a lot of new people at work. Through here, I discovered my new anime community, but I will never forget the time I had shared with my old, beloved community and friends.
Note: This is my first entry to digibro’s Diary of An Anime Lived project.
deluscar 
School was no big separation for me. My friends were in different grades, or dropped out, and I don’t think I graduated with anyone I actually knew. But now, our friends are doing stuff like joining the military, and we’re facing a separation, which is already being quite brutal, especially because we’re really close-knit. None of my friends have completely left the country yet, though, so maybe there’s hope yet.
I’m sure you had gone through much more then I had ever experienced. I had read some of your diary of an anime post and there are really some deep stuffs. That’s really indeed some tough situations, though I’m glad some of them haven’t left yet, especially if you bonded with them well.
You’re so blessed to have had such a tight-knit group of friends! I’ve had many close friends, but maybe only one small group that I was so attached to that it would hurt if we went our separate ways. Luckily, I went to college with that small group and when we separated afterward, I was able to take it a little better, I think, because of my age.
Wonderful post – thanks for sharing!
Guess I am :D Though it’s really sad that I haven’t been able to get together with them as much. It’s actually surprising that you were still able to go to college with the same friends. Once you get to college/work, it’s really usual to find your usual friends leaving and leaving one by one, though in place you meet new people.
I always pictured K-ON as the epitome of high school life. I even mentioned this fact in my own review of the series because behind all the moe goodness, that is exactly what K-ON’s all about, 5 girls enjoying their high school lives till their eventual graduation to college. Maybe someday we’ll get to see their college lives but I doubt that will happen since college is serious and all. Why do you think most anime/manga series skip college entirely near the series’ epilogue?
Indeed. Behind all the moe and music, it shows 5 girls enjoying the peak fun and enjoyment of their high school lives (felt like I’m copying your words, lol). Actually, if you follow the manga, there’s actually a college arc and if K-ON’s going to have future seasons, that’s probably going to be in the next adaption. Not sure if the arc’s any good myself since I didn’t read them.
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