Wednesday, July 18, 2012

An ode to friendship

I am not really an extrovert person. Those who know me will beg to differ. My wife just recently had this idea of me being the big bully who loves to pick on the defenseless and makes fun of them. Then there are the dirty jokes/words/inferences I like to tell. Still, even with my public persona, I actually love to just sit at home. Writing, watching television series, read a book and sometimes, just sleep. And that's why I love travel. In a foreign setting, you rarely have to talk to other people except the companion you are with.

However, life has change a bit for me a few years ago. One was due to the social media environment in Malaysia. I started out as a blogger. I joined everything that were related to blogging. Meet-ups, events and such. It was fun and it helped me in my writing career. If not for blogging, my book will have been published in 2010. That year was one of the milestone of my life. A book and a second degree. I would never have guessed I have it in me. It was mostly thanks to my best friend, my wife.

After blogging, comes Twitter. I got to know more people. I crashed a few parties and even gatherings I don't think I was really welcomed but I made new friends. Friendships then become cliques and the rest as they say, if any biography is ever written of me, was history. We lost a few friends along the way. Some changed due to various reasons and we don't meet as much.

I don't really have lasting close friends in life except one who is now too busy with his own life and another who becomes my business partner. I rarely talk to the former anymore and the latter is someone I meet every day due to business. Close friend whom I confide everything? Just my wife. 

What I am trying to say here is that those friends I met on Twitter are now the closest thing to close friends that I have. I am writing this as for the past week they have been quite busy with work and life. When you have free time on your hands and you consider yourself a writer, you write. I am now appreciating the friendship we have as we currently are too busy to meet and discuss. I don't even need to say their names or what their profession is as when we are together none of these matter.

You always know that they are there when you want to have a laugh or want to be yourself. You will be made fun off. Be ridiculed. But you just can't stay away as you know they will always be there if you need them.

Here's to friendship. May it last into the next life.