back to basics.

today was reunion day of sorts.
met up with lovely Linnet my cousin from Brisbane, and my primary school classmates to attend Wei Cheng's wake.

breakfast and shopping with my cousin was very nice. i now know that i've another real friend who won't sugarcoat her words: " this dress does nothing for you." =) i'm a hem-and-haw, never-gonna-tell-you-the-awful-truth kinda girl. and i need people like that to balance me out. linnet, i went to dig deep into my archives (haha not really. my blog's not that old) and found your message. thank you for that! will see you real soon, but until then, the continental/time/seasonal differences shall not keep us apart.

my primary school friends didn't really change appearance-wise. nor did mr.ng. wei cheng was our classmate and yes, the rest of you might know him as one of the 5 tragically-departed dragon boaters. as we all sat and talked, bringing ourselves back to 8 years ago, i was suddenly reminded that wei cheng and i sat beside each other in class. i will not spin a beautiful tale of harmony for the sake of my blog, but honestly say that sometimes we were on good terms but sometimes out of competitiveness, we wld childishly bicker. i think i tried to copy his ting xie on numerous occasions but he wouldn't let me and i complained madly! i don't rmb him very well, but it is my absolute privilege to have known him. he who turned out to be mature, independent and filial. these values mean NOTHING to us in this generation, but we can't deny they shape the character of a person.

people feel pity that the 5 men left us young and full of promise. but i feel that we should be comforted by the fact that they had strived and worked hard to build dreams. the future only holds promise for us, i think, only when we make a start by our own efforts. and very honestly? not everyone has promising futures. some people just like to idle, waste away. i don't have friends like those.

i think it is timely, then, to be reminded that we should cherish our youth, build meaningful and lasting relationships with a few good people, make decisions with a good head on our shoulders, be joyful, and arm ourselves with a certain amount of ambition in life. most importantly, we should love selflessly. and then life will kinda sort itself out.

being with my primary school classmates after a long time made me happy. it was so wonderful seeing them. people know that i'm not one who loves to hang out in big groups. conversations become superficial then, and to me that is wasting my time. BUT. i felt at home. i felt like i was with childhood friends who would always innately understand and accept me. i can't describe it. i suppose that being kids together at a point in our lives made me let my guard down, made me comfortable. we grew up as a group, tainted already but not tarnished by adulthood and all the vices it brings: cynicism, reality, responsibility. childhood friendships are unpretentious.

i'm so happy i met my old friends today.