a reflection about friends at the end of the semester

The semester has practically ended, with the final closure happening on the 23rd, when the *truth* will be known. Meantime, there is time for a break, for a little reflection of the semester that I've had. And one of the things that I've realised is that, I have been much blessed with friends - that despite my social awkwardness, I was never physically alone, that for most of the time, I've had friends - people whom I know physically close, that I really could be alone, but only by deliberate choice. I'm finally learning to be with people for the first time in my life, without being bothered too much by the timing of reaching home.

I love my friends. I really do. And to some of them, I appreciate them much more than they might realize. I realised the importance of 'touching base', that despite the busy-ness, it is ALWAYS important to say, 'hi, how are you, bye' sorta thing, even for just 5 minutes. These little acts are more important than people realise, I think, because it represents a person's intention in engaging others, that despite limited time, 'I still want to keep in touch with you, because I care about you enough'. I guess to some, it might seem to be a compromise, since nothing can replace dedicated time and attention...

And I'm sitting down here, thinking about the 'networks' that I've found myself in... these networks are hardly interconnected, but there are some linkages and overlaps between them. Like science VCF people who are also FCBC people, USP peope who are FCBC... USP people who do NGO stuff. and so on. But its an amazing breadth of networks...

hmm... many of these links can only be maintained by 'touching base', since its nearly impossible to spend time and effort in the administration of these networks... just wondering...