Wai Hou's Special

I was on leave for the past week and these 10 days have been nothing short of amazing. I met up with different friends, each a unique experience. It was relaxing to listen to each other's recommendations of songs/music pieces at Yi Jie's house. It was creepy listening to Shi Yun's personal story. It was refreshing to have a 1-1 meet-up with Marcus. It was stimulating to hear Jia Min's thought-provoking questions. And of course, there were others to boot. I was living like I'm dying and every day was such pure indulgence. 

I would like to give special thanks to Wai Hou, whom I mentioned in my last post and met on Tuesday. Come to think of it, the last we met was 2017 when we went for our 3rd cycle of ICT. However, I would regard 2015 as the last time we really talked since we exchanged practically zero lines during the brief encounters in camp. His WhatsApp left off our conversation from 2015. A JJ Lin's song rang in my ears, '或者晚一點 遇上成熟的我' - Things could have different if he had met a more mature version of myself. I requested to read the preposterous stuff I wrote back then. They really made me feel apologetic and embarrassed as I cringed and cowered in shame. It would've helped if I were conveying those words in a calmer mood. 

Before I proceed, I digress and highlight that I reconnected with a few friends in 2019 too, just that those just faded with time and were arguably easier to reconnect. If it's not already obvious enough, Wai Hou is a forgiving person. It's not just his 'nice guy' image that made me want to rekindle the friendship. The way he sees life and his knowledge in fields I'm unfamiliar with, really slap me with new insights from time to time. I too, hope to assist him and add value in whichever way I can. Sometimes joy is not derived from what you obtain for yourself, but from what you help others obtain. Admittedly, there are stark differences in our characters and interests, but there is this potential synergy which can bring about a tremendously fulfilling friendship. Or at least that's what I believe.

I dare not say I have achieved nirvana and have morphed into a saint, but definitely a better version of myself compared to 5.5 years ago. Since once bitten twice shy, I will surely apply the lessons I've learnt from the past experiences. I was telling Yi Jie that I am going to accumulate so many good karma points if I could amend this. Although I resort to extreme measures sometimes, I'm glad I did not delete Wai Hou's related posts on IG. A line in one of my caption reads, 'More good times to come'. It sounded ironic before, but there is hope now. 

Don't mess it up again.