On the issue of friends

Lately I've been thinking a lot about friends and the friendships I have. Being the extrovert I am, I find myself constantly making new friends and yet struggling to keep in touch with the old friends I have. Friends are important to me, and well, it would break my heart to find a friend suddenly cold without much reason.

It was pretty interesting then to find that some readers of the Star actually wrote about the same issue, Friendship in today's newspaper (check out the Star, 17th October 2004). Are friendships really important to all of us? Can we survive without friends?

Nowadays, I find myself constantly evaluating who's my friend and who's not. I ponder on who can I trust, who can I share with, but also who can I enjoy their company without feeling awkward. And then, I wonder if I'm the only one who's looking for true friends who care and yet are themselves.

Talking to John about this, I (or rather, we) reached a conclusion that I can't possibly be everybody's friend as that would mean I wouldn't really be anybody's friend. There's a law of quality & quantity time here. I have only 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year, and not all are free time for friends either (yea, especially when you've started working *sigh*)

Thus, I do need to choose who do I actually spend time with, instead of trying to hit blindly with a badminton racket that spells 'Let's make friends' (though at times, I feel it's unfair to not actually make friends with certain people. Just that it gets tiring to try to get a friendship to work when you're the only one doing everything)

And with that, I do feel that I need to keep in touch with some old, good friends I have. Some I haven't met in ages as it's embarassing to tell others I haven't actually graduated from University. And the time apart sometimes slowly drives us apart. It's kinda sad to be lost for things to talk about when we finally meet up and get done with the pleasantries (which include all the crap, jokes and humour)

Someone once mentioned friends are like spices in life. They add flavour, taste and even something extra to an otherwise plain journey in life. Someone else mentioned that a friendship occurs when two people find that, wow, there's someone out there just like them, with the same interests and all.

However, someone else once mentioned that Christ is our best friend. After all, when you put the same weight of expectation upon the normal friends we have, friendships do crumble as none can actually bear the weight of selfishness. But if we go in with an attitude of wanting to bless, friendships will prosper.

As for me, yes, my friends are ultimately very important to me. If you do feel that I've done you wrong, just drop me a line. And, it would be interesting to get your opinion on this issue about friends and friendships.

God Bless~

p/s: Yes Nick, it's not final year syndrome. After all, I've been final year for 3 years