"Friends" - my favourite sitcomOur lives revolve around people; people that we share our lives with since birth, people who come into our lives at some juncture and people who come .. and go.
I still remember a quotation read somewhere which simply put as "A great friend may be well reckoned, the masterpiece of nature". To me, this is a significant statement when one considers the grand show that Nature could be.
How do we nurture our friendships? Who are our friends, or are they just acquaintances? How many friends do we have? How important are our friends? How do we rate our friends, or should we be even considered unfair to do so? Can our friends count on us, and vice-versa? What are we doing to maintain these connections?
When we were young, especially our teenage years; friends were really important. The types of friendships we had then basically played a huge part in moulding our characters. However, as we age, the burdens of work, family and society enroach on our time; the time it takes to nurture that "masterpiece of nature".
I want to share with you about the greatest friend a person could have. I've known this friend since early primary schooling. Now that's a long time to have as a friend, his name is Aldrin Ng, and I'm proud to call this true gem, my true friend. Now here's the story of our friendship:
We became classmates in primary 3. At the time, it was just a normal friendship, we hung around together with others especially during recess whereby everybody would congregate on a small designated patch of school field for football. Contact was during school-time only, because we lived far from each other to have hung out in the evenings for games.
He became a good friend in Secondary 1 when we attended Accounting tuition in the late afternoons. Contact was easy as we were more mobile then, since we were considered by our parents to be old enough to venture further away from our homes; via riding our bicycles to attend tuition classes and for evening sports. We would make plans to stop at our favourite wanton mee stall after tuition and proceed to another friend's home for a game of hockey.
The friendship witheld the test of time until after Secondary 5 when we parted ways to further our studies. By then , studying at Taylors College in KL often had me returning home only late at night. I suppose I was the studious-kind too coz I remembered whatever free time I had was spent holed-up in my tiny bedroom doing my assignments and catching up on studies. However, we still managed to meet up for short intervals for drinks at the mamak stalls.
Communication took a turn for the worse when I left for my tertiary education to Australia. Somehow, we wanted to meet whenever I returned during year-end summer breaks but never got to do so. It was probably because we had seperate sets of hangout friends then.
Well, we met by chance again at an old classmates gathering 4 years ago. And friendship blossomed once again. Through that time, life moved on. He got married and had 2 kids whilst I was still searching for that imperfect one. Bonding was fast as both of us went through some tough times then especially since both our fathers left us, the timing not too far apart from each other, both due to illness. I suppose we also shared some other similar situations that bonded our friendship. He was and still is my Rock-of-Gibraltar when the going really got tough. He would checkup on me almost daily, with the same degree of concern returned. Emotions were often left unchecked; we could talk for hours over many, many cups of ...... teas of distress, sometimes mixed in with healthy doses of free-flowing tears and gratitude.
I still remember a quotation read somewhere which simply put as "A great friend may be well reckoned, the masterpiece of nature". To me, this is a significant statement when one considers the grand show that Nature could be.
How do we nurture our friendships? Who are our friends, or are they just acquaintances? How many friends do we have? How important are our friends? How do we rate our friends, or should we be even considered unfair to do so? Can our friends count on us, and vice-versa? What are we doing to maintain these connections?
When we were young, especially our teenage years; friends were really important. The types of friendships we had then basically played a huge part in moulding our characters. However, as we age, the burdens of work, family and society enroach on our time; the time it takes to nurture that "masterpiece of nature".
I want to share with you about the greatest friend a person could have. I've known this friend since early primary schooling. Now that's a long time to have as a friend, his name is Aldrin Ng, and I'm proud to call this true gem, my true friend. Now here's the story of our friendship:
We became classmates in primary 3. At the time, it was just a normal friendship, we hung around together with others especially during recess whereby everybody would congregate on a small designated patch of school field for football. Contact was during school-time only, because we lived far from each other to have hung out in the evenings for games.
He became a good friend in Secondary 1 when we attended Accounting tuition in the late afternoons. Contact was easy as we were more mobile then, since we were considered by our parents to be old enough to venture further away from our homes; via riding our bicycles to attend tuition classes and for evening sports. We would make plans to stop at our favourite wanton mee stall after tuition and proceed to another friend's home for a game of hockey.
The friendship witheld the test of time until after Secondary 5 when we parted ways to further our studies. By then , studying at Taylors College in KL often had me returning home only late at night. I suppose I was the studious-kind too coz I remembered whatever free time I had was spent holed-up in my tiny bedroom doing my assignments and catching up on studies. However, we still managed to meet up for short intervals for drinks at the mamak stalls.
Communication took a turn for the worse when I left for my tertiary education to Australia. Somehow, we wanted to meet whenever I returned during year-end summer breaks but never got to do so. It was probably because we had seperate sets of hangout friends then.
Well, we met by chance again at an old classmates gathering 4 years ago. And friendship blossomed once again. Through that time, life moved on. He got married and had 2 kids whilst I was still searching for that imperfect one. Bonding was fast as both of us went through some tough times then especially since both our fathers left us, the timing not too far apart from each other, both due to illness. I suppose we also shared some other similar situations that bonded our friendship. He was and still is my Rock-of-Gibraltar when the going really got tough. He would checkup on me almost daily, with the same degree of concern returned. Emotions were often left unchecked; we could talk for hours over many, many cups of ...... teas of distress, sometimes mixed in with healthy doses of free-flowing tears and gratitude.
Of course, not every meet was sorrowful, we had our fun times too. Nowadays, we would laugh at every single little story worth a laugh, just to lift our spirits up. We discuss our future plans; we discuss his wife & kids and my worldly pursuits; we discuss religion and politics. And we always made sure that when we left each other after every meet, we would have left feeling that we have a brotherhood that must be an envy of others & will definitely withstand the test of time.
How lucky is that?
The usual ups and downs of life have unfolded, and will continue to unfold, all under the trust and bond of friendship.
I wish you the same with your dear friend(s).
8 comments:
I think a true friend is actually more precious than a diamond, where true friend is priceless. You hardly get one even in a lifetime. Great to know that you've found yours.;)
What a coincidence! I just uploaded a post on 'friends' and we posted 'almost' the same picture ;) Anyway, I think we all need friends to share our journey in life.
KeenYee - I truly did! :) But I'm sure your hv got great friends too ie Meg and Mango. Maybe someday, you'll be my great friend too? keke :)
Live2talk - great minds think alike? haha. Anyway, to me, this blog is long overdue. I'll keep on trying to write on subjects close to my & our hearts.
Thanks to both of you. Pray you have a wonderful new week! :)
Sigh...your post makes me think of my bestie. We used to spend hours chatting away on the phone everyday but now that we have our own life, it became once in a blue moon 'hi' on facebook. Sad how the modern technology is drawing us apart. I am gonna pick up my phone to call her to chat tonite. :)
OMG! i also uploaded a post about F.R.I.E.N.D.S [the series], just cause i'm rewatching them all over again~ Anyway, you are so lucky to have such a close friend~ :D do cherish it...
Precious pea - you are on the right track, sweets. M sure she'll be ever too glad to to hear fm you. :)
Froggie - that makes the 3 of us (inc. Live2talk) that wrote on the same subject.I try not to miss watching Friends which is currently on Astro chn 711. Gosh, I've been a fan since ages ago.It's not too late for you to get a great friend to, I'm sure you will.
Thanks to the both of you for visiting. :) Cheers!
Like you, I also have good friends since Primary 1 till today. Honestly, the side bar contents in your blog woke my sleepy eyes up! Someday I will be posting a true story how Guru Rinpoche saved my life...
TZ - :) Thanks for visiting!
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