The news of Anjeet's funeral still stayed fresh in my mind. Anjeet, a friend from secondary school, my fellow Young Enterpreneur and also, the hot punjabi chick that got the attention of the indian guys and beyond.
She was also my fellow HELP institute friend, although we had different degrees, with mine, the ever crazy Bachelor of Economics from University of London, and hers, hmm, American Degree Program I suppose.
And it was a shock to hear her death. It's so soon, so fast and she's too young to die. After all, she just got married last year. And well, frankly speaking, her funeral was another of those gathering for all of us since the times of form 5. Most of us hardly met, except in our own comfortable groups, people we hanged out with.
And what an irony, cause, just 3 weeks before that, the reason why we met was to celebrate Wei Hoong's wedding. 9 years. It has been too long. Too long since we last sat down and thought about life. Life that swept us by, from childhood dreams, to realisation of the harshness of the real world.
It was good too, to be able to meet up with the girl I once had something for. Wei Mun was, in every sense, everybody's dream girl. She was smart, witty, pretty and well, most importantly, kind. And the thing is, she did not had to flirt to gain attention. I was anxious to see how she had turned out to be, yet, well, a bit worried on what she might think of me after all these years. Good thing was well, it went better than expected.
The guys that went around labelling me a loser, well, they came for the wedding too. The whole bunch of them, minus a couple of others. Some still held the air of aloofness with them when you greeted them. 9 years on, and well, it's a pretty sad sight to see this happening. Though, others warmed up and were able to joke about things. Guess that they've grown up huh?
And well, my gang. My group of friends. Some of them whom I walked home from school almost everyday. Others, we sat around the football field in the middle of the night at 3 am, just looking at the stars. There was our favorite mamak spot around ss3. The times we sat around, trying to pick up some songs off Sukhwinder. The times we got excited meeting chicks from some girls school. And yea, those Americans too.
The times we spent making fun of Abdullah. Ah, I'm surprised to remember sneaking into Sunway Lagoon a number of times with Jack. And there we were, 2 guys, just hanging out on the suspended bridge in the evenings. Looking, pondering and well, trying to make meaning out of life. Jack's now a self-made millionaire a few times over. And nope, he didn't get help from his dad, who was a newspaper editor.
The funny thing? Jack and me both had something for Wei Mun once. And he was with me in my sorrows and in my countless depressing poems. Perhaps life wasn't that bad if you took out that element. But then, what would life be, without the pains and the joys?
I guess, I'll be the last one out of university and to work in a proper job. True, you could say working as a waiter at Chili's and as a trainee Engineer are proper jobs too. But yet, there you are, not fighting for a living. Here, the real world awaits. With my God behind me too, I guess.
Looking at my bunch of friends, many of them still looked the same, with perhaps a difference in a wrinkle or two. Some thinner and some horizontally blessed. But yet, our topics of conversation has changed. It's not so much about the latest movie we've seen (though we do that to people we meet often) nor even jobs and pay and perhaps degrees, that was when the first of us graduated. But no, it's more about anxiously finding out how each other had been. Who cares about how popular we were back in secondary school? Life is indeed fragile and fast moving, why bother holding grudges?
Many first came out working believing that money and success up the corporate ladder represents everything. Some still do. But yet, for those who've been there, they've realised that the rat race does not nescessarily equate to happiness.
And as I look upon myself, making my first strides towards the working world, I keep asking myself, 'Would I give up my dream, my God given dream for money, fame or love?' And I would tell myself, no. Not even love. I want to love God more, I want to serve God more, and I know I'm a pretty stubborn guy. Kudos to my Pastor for putting up with me. She helped instill confidence in a guy that would just sit in the corner of church. Ask Jeff that, and he'll tell you more, right Jeff?
As I end this writing, I want to have more reunions. More catching up with the rest of '96 batch of Seaportians. It's quite hard to just meet up when someone gets married or dies. And well, this is a community I wouldn't want to give up on.
God Bless~!
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