Till Next Year

The sun was shining into my eyes, as I squinted behind my sunnies to peer into a car parked right in front of my office. The man seated behind the steering wheel looked very very unfamiliar.

"It's only been nearly a year. Don't tell me he has changed THAT much!" I gawked at the guy in horror. His hair was longer and more unkempt. Instead of the previous six (or was it four?) packs, he had them all lumped into one. And was that a double chin I see? Egads, what happened to my friend?

Before I could rub my eyes to make sure that I was not seeing things, a very familiar voice greeted me from behind. I turned around to look.

"Hey, cannot recognise me anymore ar?"

And there he stood, grinning away - looking very much like the person I remembered. Thank goodness he wasn't the uncle that I was staring at for the past few seconds. I was relieved because seeing an old friend changing so much physically can be rather shocking and traumatising in a way.

He said I hadn't changed a jot - but I did - I gained two jots Maybe that's his standard line in greeting old friends, so that he won't get into unnecessary trouble.

Then we had a nice time lunching, yakking and reminiscing. And then talked about how bad we were at saying goodbyes (read this and this). He said it never gets any easier. I said that it can get tiring to get close to someone (he used a nice term on his blog post - platonic soulmates - I like it!) just to say goodbye to them through death, migration, resignation, change in their stages of life, etc.

"I feel like just writing up a FAQ to the next best friend who comes along and ask him/her to read it and get up to speed with who I am. It gets tiring to do this over and over again sometimes," I said with a tired sigh.

"But that's the best part about gaining a friend. It's fun sharing who you are and what makes you tick with someone else," he begged to disagree.

I honestly do not understand how he does it every year. Coming back for a couple of weeks, reconnecting with his dear ones and then having to uproot and leave again when he has adjusted to the jet lag and our unique Malaysian ways.

While it was really nice meeting up for lunch (and dinner!), it's hard to say hello and goodbye to a friend in the same day. Take care, TK. Till next year.