True Life Tales - 2

A while back, I had started a new category called 'True Life Tales' but then never got around to writing anything much in it. Maybe I was worried none of you would be particularly interested in random experiences from my life or maybe I couldn't decide what to write about. Either way, seeing as I'm running low on inspiration these days, I thought I'd attempt another true life tale:

We met on Facebook, through a mutual friend. I commented on a 'note' he had written which, because of the mutual friend being tagged in it, appeared in my News Feed and I found interesting. (I love reading people's notes on Facebook since they're practically like blog posts.) And he replied to the comment and added me. He is a writer too, which is perhaps why we got along so well. (He is also of a zodiac sign that complements my sign but ah well, astrology is to be taken with a pinch of salt!) The first time we chatted on Yahoo, it was for three hours straight. I'd never had such a long conversation with a stranger before. And we spoke of everything: books, movies, our experiences, our lives, even sharing some things which we claimed to not discuss much with other friends. Now, before you start forming any inaccurate notions, let me clarify, there was absolutely no element of romance here - we were just two writers who had a lot to discuss and had even crossed each other's paths years before when we'd not known each other.

So a new friendship got started, and how. For those who don't know, I don't really have a lot of guy friends, I tend to be intimidated by the male gender, though things have been improving over the past few years. So it was nice to have him as a friend; and even nicer when we met up once and I got to know him better. I began anticipating more meetings, and was glad to finally have a real-life writer friend rather than an online one. (No offense to all of you who are my online friends, by the way, I value you equally.)

But alas, one meeting was all we ever had. Because just days after it, he joined college and got busy with his life. It had never crossed my mind that that would stop us from talking or further developing the friendship, but sometimes, people get caught up in changed routines and everything else fades in significance. Being an outgoing, friendly person, he obviously made a lot of new friends at college and somewhere along the way, the bond he had formed with me (or so I thought) fizzled out and withered away. We stopped texting, chatting, or even reading each other's writing anymore.

Occasionally, we exchange a mundane message citing vague intentions of meeting up, but I doubt anything will ever come of that. It strikes me as strange, how for a few days, we were so close, and just like that, we drifted apart again. It's been almost two years since we met, though we bump into each other at routine collegian hangouts sometimes. And we still have a couple of mutual friends, though I don't really fancy the idea of meeting him through them. I value that brief time I had him as a friend; I look back upon it with a smile, for I've never experienced anything else like that, and I think it taught me that sometimes, God sends us angels who stay for a while to teach us something, then flutter away to teach us something more. Does that make any sense? It does to me. And I wonder whether he ever thinks of those few days that we talked so much and got to know so much of each other's lives. There is one thing in particular that he said which stands out in my memory, something about the future, and I'm just going to wait and see whether it proves true after all. It would be a miracle if yes, but won't matter if not. For what matters is that we had that friendship and friendship, however brief, is always a blessing.