On Thursday, I sent off another of my friends to the airport, one who was flying off to further her studies. While a group of us were there earlier for dinner, they took out a handmade photo album stuck with long, long, and I mean, long ago photos that we had taken as a group. And I knew they were old, because I saw shirts that I.... haven't fitted into for a number of years. -_-!!!!!

I remarked that the only 2 occasions that brought me to the airport were 1) departures for holidays and 2) to see friends off to other countries.

On a number of occasions, I've seen friends off to studies in other countries, and back then, the only online communication was ICQ and emails. [gosh, how primitive] We would see the friend in question off, and then not see her face for about 5 to 6 months. When she came back for holidays, we would meet up, catch up, and all too soon, it would be time for her to go back for the new term. We would send her off at the airport, knowing that 5, 6 months later we'd see her again. This would be repeated for a couple of friends. [yes, you know who you are]

In our point of life, though, it has somewhat changed. Now I still have friends leaving, but instead of leaving only to come back a few months later, they left with no clear point of return. They left to purposely start new lives wherever they went and who knew when they would be back again.

Funny how the time spent together in our youth was taken for granted, only to be re-appreciated again when we were older and such time was even more scarce than before.

Now when we meet, there is no time for small talk anymore, because we all know that this is all we get anymore. The friendships have become more valuable because of its very lack of frequency.

Thank goodness for small mercies like blogs, MSN and even *shudder* Facebook. At least with these you don't feel as if you haven't seen the girl for very long, because you can see from her Facebook that she has just had cornflakes for breakfast and is now waiting for the ice to thaw. ( ok, I made that one up :p ) Funny thing that now a less intimate form of communication has instead deepened the intimacy.

At my age, [hm, I sound older than I really am] I think I've seen enough farewells that I've almost become immune. Maybe I've just come to realise that we all have our own different ways to go. And I've also seen enough to know that the last sendoff will never be the last. If God and airlines be willing, there will always be ways for us to meet again should we want to.

And for all else, there's always Facebook.

Either a brand new start OR the same story over again

I started the new year with a lapse in the blogging. :p don't know whether this augurs well for the start of the new year.

But up to this point of my life, every new year and every birthday starts to feel like one more in a series. Like a long running drama series, the plot slightly changes, the people come and go, but the lead actress is always there. Similarly like in a sitcom, the lead actress also manages to somehow get into the same scrapes over and over again. :p

For example, look at the new year's resolutions you made for last year. Did you fulfill yours? 'Cos I didn't -_-!!! and I'll be repeating the same resolutions over again this year. -_-!!!!!!!!!! Repeat of last year's plotline over a new season.

After the holidays, when you went back to work, didn't you feel like it was the same thing over again? I'm back to my one month neglected cubicle *Major SIGH* and when the year really started, it was the same routines over again. I'm back to the planning, the pens, the wishful dreaming of June holidays..........

What if we could run out of our own programmed life? A lead actress that stays for too long in one series faces the risk of being typecast as that particular character for the rest of her career. [Gillian Anderson, Courteney Cox, Sarah Jessica Parker] When we get too much into our lives, are we running the same risk?

What if we could run out of our own shows, and take up another role in another entirely different show? Can Sarah Jessica Parker play a cutting edge forensic scientist on CSI? [I wonder]

Can we ourselves break out of our own mold into something else entirely? Without suffering too much of the consequences?

Maybe that this what we should be doing each new year instead. Forget making pointless resolutions that you may or may not keep. Instead reflect on what your life has been the previous year. Then think of what you can do to make the next year as radically different as possible.

Here's to your 2009. :)

--
Getting all the slack I can...
http://boredslacker.blogspot.com