Old School Friends

Yesterday, at work, all of a sudden, out of the blues, I received a call from a friend whom I have not seen for the last 28 years! (I know, I know... you must be guessing my age now!) Last was when we were together in the same school and he was the Assistant Head Prefect. Well, I am not the type who will easily pick up calls from unknown numbers at my mobile, but somehow or rather, I had the intuition to just answered the call. He was addressing me by the name that I was called then, and speaking in fluent Kelantanese dialect. And, hes a Chinese guy! Nevertheless, you know your friend and with just a few words uttered, I could easily guess who he is. I was smiling and widely grinning from ear-to-ear. To make the story short, he will be coming to KL next week with his family and will be meeting me on Raya eve. Seronoknya!

How he got my number, eh? Well, two weeks earlier, also a freind whom we have not met for 28 years as well, came to KL (from Tawau where he now resides) and a few of us met for 'buka puasa' at Holiday Villa, Subang, with assistance from another friend, of course. With this particluar guy, though we have not met for so long, we did emailing each other, just not met face-to-face until that 'buka puasa' day. He was the Head Prefect then and the surprise call was from his assistant from schooling days! Words get around via the net and the friend of mine got my number. This borderless world that we are living now really make me excited. Thank God that I am still alive to experience all these internet thingy!

Talking about friends, do you realize that in our life we encountered with many groups of friends... As for me. I gathered friends from various stages of my life. Primary school friends, secondary school friends (some from primary left to go to boarding schools) where we were joined by friends from remove classes (chinese or tamil schools), then form six friends, then university friends (coursemates/hostelmates/association mates) and then office mates. The more places you worked, the more friends you g0t... and the list will go on... But, somehow or rather, whether we realized it or not, we do not keep in touch with all, right? Some are so near, yet so far. And some, distant makes heart grows fonder! Betul tak? We tend to be selective. We keep in contact only those that leaves a mark in our heart, a footprint in our soul.

To me, friends from the schooling days are the most sincere ones. We were so innocent and naive. We spoke our minds like nobody's business. We argued worst than cats and dogs. We really fought like great enemies. We competed in everything as though the winner will be the King of the country. Then after all that, we made amends and we hugged and kissed like lovers. We truly forgive and forget like the wound without scar. And the funniest thing is we did it over and over again, so many times, laughed and cried, kicked and kissed and so on....until we left school. That is why those friends are the lasting friends. I believe in that so much.

Friends in campus or friends at work, all have hidden agendas that only God knows. Why? Because the situation demands us so. In universities, we hungered for good grades. Thus, there were friends who would not share study materials with you for fear that you will get better grades. There are also friends who did their assignment to the last minute, merely to get ideas from other friends' assignments first... and later got higher grades, etc. At work, there are friends who stabbed you from your back, backmouthing you to your superior or other colleagues, affecting your year-end appraisal and so on... These my friends, do happen. So, my advice, be cautious... at this stage of life, its really difficult to identify a friend or a foe. Believe me, it is not easy to find needles in the haystack! Just be smart. Most importantly, be yourself, do your best and then leave everything to God the Almighty.

That is why, I truly cherish my old school friends.

Enough bicara, kalambicara must stop bicara now! Till then...