TGIF...

Friend (Noun)Word History: A friend is a lover, literally. The relationship between Latin amcus "friend" and "I love" is clear, as is the relationship between Greek philos "friend" and phile "I love." In English, although we have to backtrack a millennium before we see the verb related to friend. At that time, frond, the Old English word for "friend," was simply the present participle of the verb fron, "to love."

So apparently the month of March has been (for me) to get reacquainted with friends of old. Well, I'm not 50 yet, although it did feel like it when I was back in Kuala Lumpur a fortnight ago when I spent the weekend getting reaquainted with some of my oldest and dearest friends; people who were a part of my childhood and growing up years. Together, we remembered those "glory fun filled days of innocence". And, fuelled by coffee, cakes and more coffee, we were also inspired to share our dreams for the next 25 years.

The following week, after I got back from KL, I met up with more friends from my early years. In fact, I'm to meet up with some others, from this weekend till the next. It's always a pleasant surprise to discover that we are still able to talk and talk for hours. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to say that she/he is my friend from kindergarten, school, college. That's about 30 years of friendship, almost unheard of these days. And it’s sad that I didn't realise how much I had missed their friendship. My one regret is that I have been the worst friend in taking most of them for granted. I think that the time has come to change that aspect of my life. It’s funny that you don't even realise that it has happened until it's too late and you have drifted apart.

To quote Sean, "The friendship cultivated when we come out to the working world pales in comparison to the bonds we forged when we were growing up". I agree wholeheartedly for in this day and age, the circle of friends we choose to socialize with are the people we work with. And as we progress into the new age and pursue success in the rat race, we tend to change professions every 3-5 years. Which makes the average age of a "friend" in your life to be about 5 years old.

Having said that, the song of the week is this particularly emotional one from ABBA. Lyrics courtesy of Google.

The Way Old Friends Do.

You and I can share the silence
Finding comfort together
The way old friends do
And after fights and words of violence
We make up with each other
The way old friends do
Times of joy and times of sorrow
We will always see it through
Oh I don't care what comes tomorrow
We can face it together
The way old friends do (repeat)
We can face it together
The way old friends do