OK, I don’t often do this, share my recent thoughts, (or even, my life story.) But in any case, here goes. I’ll try to come up with a point. =P

Random thoughts on a common theme…

…a result of a combination of items:

1. I’ve been cleaning my room lately (it’s taken >6 mos.)
2. I possess tendencies of an extreme packrat (it’s genetic, I say.)
3. I also possess meticulousness in organization (anal accountant? Perhaps.)
4. My friends and I either graduated this year or will graduate in the next year.
5. I enjoy very much moments of nostalgia in general.

I stumbled on my old cards as I cleaned my room. Of course, they were all packaged and labelled by year, grade, and event. Because my friends and I are all approaching graduation and moving on to the next stage of life, everyone is curious as to the “goings-on’s” of everyone else with whom we went to school before university.

Looking at these cards made me think of my journey:

Meeting my first friends in grade one: Alfred and Andrew… it was on the school climber (back then climbers were built out of wood, complete with opportunities to pick up slivers, none of this ultra-safe plastic nowadays: what fun is that?? =P)

My first birthday cards: 11th birthday in grade 5, 12th birthday in grade 6… where the gesture of a card was ample; where Andrew was the coolest person to have a computer-generated, dot-matrix printed card =P; we only signed names without writing anything; friendships were innocent and fun; there was no need to “talk” anything out; disputes were rare, if any.

A drought of cards between grades 7 to 9, which confirms the reasons for my extreme dislike of middle school… it was a traumatic experience, indeed. =P

Starting from grade 10, (sweet sixteen!) a LOT more was written in cards. It’s amazing how far we’ve come since grade one. We have since matured significantly, having gone through many more life experiences (although I don’t deny having a somewhat sheltered childhood / adolescence…), accomplished many achievements, dreamt bigger and better futures.

As I graduated from high school, my circle of friends expanded... We’ve shared wonderful experiences together: Switzerland, and being stranded in Florence; monopolizing the school by controlling the yearbook ([to the student council] Oh yeah? Oh yeah? One page for you! Black and white! =P Haha, joking); graduating from a ghetto school as a circle of friends who actually looked toward the future... =P

I also got to know what *real* friendship is: sharing struggles and burdens with each other, empathizing based on the understanding gained from past experiences, caring without seeking anything in return, tasting the purity the love of philios…

This concept of friendship extended to university; having met a few more people whom I now consider as my closest friends…

My point in all of this?

In the final analysis, all I can say is that I have been blessed beyond comprehension. God has carried me through all these years (especially out of those traumatic middle school years… =P) and I am forever grateful.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
– James 1:17