Monday – Bike-Handing over day

Today is the beginning of a week which I will not see the end of in Singapore. I am leaving Singapore in a few days. Today I looked into my last piece of responsibility, my Honda NSR 150 SP, my bike. I went down to NTU for lunch, and then ensured my bike was spanking clean before handing it over to its caretaker, Xiao Ming. Honestly it was a slow day for me, everything slowed down to a crawl after Sunday. After my crazy 5 days of meeting people and doing stuff, today was very light indeed.

So what are my thoughts for the day? Friends I guess, I was thinking of how I would have never made it to where I am today if not for those around me. Those who would stretch out their hand and offer their help, and those who unwittingly helped me by being judgmental of me. The list goes on, and I need to elaborate on the topic of how important friends are.

When I first started out as a child, a kid at the kindergarten, there was only friends and not-friends. I can “don’t friend you” and “friend” you. Things might have not been easy, but it was simple to understand.

As we grow older, we learn of a new word, acquaintance. Suddenly, there was a different dimension to our social circle. And along came classmate, coursemate, army friend, batchmate, business partner, business associates, etc etc.

I have come to agree very much with this line I read somewhere; your network today will be your net worth tomorrow. I believe there is more then a grain of truth in that statement. It is even more meaningful to someone who is still young, surrounded by equally young friends. Each one of them bursting with potential, their future unrealized, with nothing to their names but their hopes and their dreams, the question is as their friend, can we see it?

Keep good company, for a Man is measured by the quality of the company he keeps. An almost sure way to gauge a man’s worth is by who calls him friend. There is an age old saying which I cannot help but include here, quality over quantity. However, I have learned recently that only from the quantity can we have a chance of meeting the few quality individuals who you will one day share your destiny with.

Don’t be too anxious to embrace everyone as your brother, know them first. Don’t look at how they fund their lifestyle but look at what motivate them, look at their dreams and where they put most of their efforts. If they are in sync with yours, or compliment yours, then you have a friend to keep. If not, then you will have what is commonly known as a “hi bye” friend. We can never have too many of those no?

Vernon