Friends

Today I did... absolutely nothing at all. Except sleep and play games. And read a little. It's getting quite hard to pry myself away from the PC nowadays.

So I decided to do just that. I went to see some friends whom I haven't hung out with for quite a while, at least a month.

This bunch of friends are not the same as my other bunch of friends. In fact, they are very, very different from me. I spend a lot of times around computers. These guys don't. They're more into more physical things like cars and football and WWE. I speak English a lot. These guys don't.

We're so different. I'm the geek and they're the tough, swaggery guys. And yet, we're still friends. Not mere "acquaintances". One of them go back to the days when I was in school. I know him for 15 years at least.

These bunch of friends help put things in perspective and keep me earthbound. They help me realize that life is a lot more than what I see in front of me. And that is a good thing.

In many ways, their lives are harder than mine. In some other ways, their lives are easier.

It's always good to have friends who are the same as you are, keep the same interests, see the same perspective, back you up when you need backing up. But sometimes, real good friends are those who are totally different from us. Like these guys. We make strange company. But good company, it definitely is.

The important thing is not to judge and to keep an open mind. To agree to be different and to listen to each other's stories. To accept that we are different and not to impose ourselves. We could learn a lot from people who are not the same, that we disagree with even. Just need to remember, not all disagreements are personal. Not every difference is contentious. "Different" isn't always "wrong".

That is a good thing to remember.

Despite all the complaints and rants and dissatisfaction I express with living and life, at least I have good friends. I just wish that there were more hours in the day (not to mention matching schedules) so that I can hang out with all of them.

The one thing that I have in abundance is good company. I hope I never take that for granted.