Few years earlier we had a high-school reunion, well sort of…sort of in that actually a couple friends from high-school had invited others for a gathering. We’d been out of high-school for over a decade and a half then. Interestingly, all those students, save for me, was a long-time student at this school. My father, due to his banking related jobs was posted to various cities, and thus I’ve gone to different schools–I think close to ten in my twenty years of education. And certainly, my stay at this particular school too, was brief.
So, when I was invited I was flattered, excited. My thoughts went in the line of: “Did they invite me because they loved me–because they deemed me a “friend”? “Had I been “likeable” as a fellow high-school student to the extent where they’d invite me, despite me being a relatively “new” student?
Personally, I’m anything but “perfect”. I can be rash, moody and irritable. I think sometimes I relish my solitude too much, dote on it, and crave for it. Why? Because it helps with my “writing pursuits, the solitude.
Yet, I was deemed a “friendly” individual–somebody people called to their reunions. So, if I was deemed thus, I don’t have anything to complain. Perhaps my habit of not judging people or friends and accepting them for who they are, and just letting them be, my habit of relishing their company, my knack for and talents of being a “listener” was what came into account…and perhaps that’s what deems us a “friend”.
Seriously, we’re all different, yet we’re all similar in many ways. Different! How do I mean? We’re all different in that our wants, desires, thoughts, interests, passions, habits and ambitions aren’t similar. Yet at the core, we’re all alike, we like to be liked, loved and appreciated, don’t we?
So, being invited at this high-school reunion or gathering was one of my life’s enjoyable experience. Why? Because it helped me rekindle the very spirit and attitude that deemedme “likeable”, “friendly”, that made me a “friend”.