Disconnected

How connected are you with your past? Even though this may sound like a quiz from Blogthings, it is not. This is just one of those things that came to me when I read some blogs. Even after having children of their own, they still keep in touch with childhood friends, friends at primary school, high school and others at the different stages of their life.

Before I went to school, my only friend is my brother. Then I started primary school and have different set of friends at different time but I didn't keep in touch with them after I finish primary school. I wouldn't know how to contact any of them even if I have too.

Then, there are my high school friends. We went through a lot together being in the boarding school. We keep in touch via egroup but most of them are not in the group. If I have to contact anyone of them, I probably could but so far there is no need for me to. Some of us got closer because we went to the same university and some of us would feel like strangers when we meet.

As for my university friends, we keep in touch with egroups too but that is only for friends from the same batch. I have no idea where all my roommates are now. Some of them are in a different faculty and different batch. I'd love to keep in touch with them and see how they were doing but back then email address was a novelty and hand phones were still big and heavy.

After working for few years, I still have the contact number of a few ex colleagues that has become friends but we have not contacted each other very much. That's how things are nowadays. You are just so busy and so tired day in day out.

Apparently, it takes a lot of effort to keep in touch. When I was not busy going outstation or tired from conducting one training after another, I'd often call my friends or went to visit them. This was when I was in my previous job. Most of the time they have the excuse of having young children so they are not as mobile. But then they can visit other married friends and their excuse is their husband can chat with the friend's husband. The truth is, maybe our priorities are different now.

I wouldn't have a clue if they want to discuss about baby formula or kindergarten or PIBG. And they could only listen to my traveling and photography stories. In the end it would fall back to ones effort. It is good to see those who reciprocate my effort come baby or hubby and it makes me appreciate the friendship even more.

We make friends along the way and circumstances draw us apart. I have always accepted that as how things work naturally. That is why when some bloggers wrote about their childhood friend, friends when they're still in diapers, I just felt a big sense of admiration for the bond of friendship they have and managed to keep. It is like a miracle since most of the time I have been disconnected from my past.