Friend

How do you describe a friend?

Do we actually know the real meaning of friend?

According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, there are 6 definition of "friend". The first one seems to be the most relevant to what I meant. To quote Oxford Dic;

friend /frend/ n person one knows and likes, but who is not a relation

If you ask me for my definition of friend, I'd say,

"A friend is someone whom you can sit on a swing with the whole night, without saying a word, yet, both of you walk away feeling like you have had the longest conversation ever."

I read this quotation somewhere, and I can't remember the person who quoted it. I was amazed by this quotation, as I felt this is what a friend should meant. Friend do not judge friend, but to lend him an ear when he needed someone to listen to him. I did not say "a shoulder to cry on" because I know I wouldn't cry in front of my friends. LOL.

I have carried this quotation with me for more than half a decade now, and I still very much agrees with it. Of course, I don't choose my friends based on this quotation. I try not to judge anyone (Mother Teresa says if you judge, you'll have no time to love.), and be friend with everyone, but due to my rather quiet nature, sometimes(read: seldom) people portray me as snobbish, until they started talking to me. I guess everyone just have the lack of confidence in starting a conversation with someone.

All through my life, I've had a lot of friends, and I still have a lot of friends, eventhough I've lose touch with some of my hometown friends.

Vincent is my closest friends that I've never lose touch with. I've known him in Standard 6, and through some twist of fate, we became really close friends in Form 1, even though we're in different class. And from then on, we're the best of friends. I can rather safely says that he's one of the very few hometown friends that I've never lose touch with. If you see him during CNY, you should see me too. LOL. We're known best friends.

Sometimes, people feel lonely, and complains that they do not have enough friends. To me, I'd rather have 1 really close friends, than to have 100 fairweather friends. LOL. But of course, glad to say that I have more than 1 really close friends. In fact, I have quite a number of them from different stages of my life, and we're still in touch, and I really treasure them. Friendship forever.

Ramlah is in Hyderabad, working under arrangement from AIESEC, while Tanu just got a new job in Cyberjaya. Greg and Jillian, both doing well too. Greg is with Patimas, in Tech Park, while Jillian seems to be enjoying herself working in Inti. Then there are people like Yoke Kong (Mr. Rat) and Yee Meng, my lepak kaki in Subang, and we still lepak together now that I'm staying in Cheras. My friends in INCOVAR. And there are few more that I did not mention over here.

Why am I writing this? I don't know. Maybe because I just wanted to thank a really good friend. Venturing into this working world has been tough to me. No! Not that I faced with problems at work, but it's more to life as a whole. As I started my working life, it opened my eyes to so many things that I've never experienced before. It's not just a responsibility. It's more than responsibility.

I have jyon to thank for ever ready in lending me an ear to talk to, and somewhere to seek for guidance. I don't know what to say, but he has always been there, ready to listen to my whines, and gives his piece of mind, which is always calm and peaceful. Rather than escalating a problem, he often taught me ways to solve a problem. According to him, or Alex, see opportunities in problems.

Jyon has helped me in a lot of things, in a lot of ways. I'm not sure how experienced he is, but he is definitely experienced enough to give me advice, and help me with my work, as in giving me ideas, where most of the time, I find him to be very IT-minded.

You know what, I really gotta thanks jyon for all the long and late nite session at Starbucks, and also mamak, once in a while. LOL. It's nice to always have a friend there to listen to you, when you face with problems, or setback. I know not everyone can have this luxury, and I gotta thank my lucky stars for it must have been our good karma that made us friends.

Coming to think about it, I got to know Jyon from the 15th INCOVAR. He was there with Seen Lan to pick me and my friends up and drove us to the temple. When I need help with my college projects, Seen Lan asked me to message Jyon for help. Unfortunately, Jyon replies were rather dissapointing, as I can sense that he was reluctant. He said was, and still is not good with programming. LOL. So, that's where our communication ended, until the 21st INCOVAR.

Until I got an email from Jowynne, asking if I'm interested to become a facilitator for the 21st INCOVAR. At the same time, I was considering to join the Rotaract Club, but decided against it, and joined INCOVAR instead. Being lost from INCOVAR for almost 2 years, Jyon is the only one that I know. LOL.

To all my friends out there, I hope you all know that you are being treasured by me, no matter how long I have known you, or how I know you. No matter how much contact we've kept with each other all these while, once a friend, we'll always be friends. I was surprised myself, that after more than 1 year leaving my previous company, I'm still keeping in touch with some of my ex-colleagues back there.

People says that when you are in the working world, it's hard to get good and sincere friends. I wouldn't agree with that statement. There are sincere people in the office too.

So, people out there, what do your friends meant to you? Are they here just to cure your boredom? Or are they here to keep you company? To help you kill time?

Friendships are precious, and it's fragile, because sincerity is something not to be found easily. More often than not, people are quick to shy away when you are faced with problems. As the saying goes, "a friend in need, is a friend indeed."