::footprints of ie|en

I was listening to Bryan Adams and Barbara Streisand’s “I Finally Found Someone” and part of the lyrics caught my attention. It says:

How true. It reminded me of a close friend. We started off as pen-pals. Nothing great. We were in high school then, he one year older than me. It started off very simply … but we continued to keep in touch even after he went overseas to pursue his studies.

We’ve never met each other during that time. He sent me his picture and I remember thinking: “Gosh, he’s got enormous feet!” He asked for my picture and I sent him one with a side-view of my face. It wasn’t even clear. Haha! Of course he complained but I never did send him another picture. Later, from pen-friend we upgraded to e-friend, sending emails flying across the globe. Mind you, it wasn't frequent, though. This friend, he had the habit of replying an email months later. He still does. I guess it’s really difficult to change one’s habit.

Years later, after graduation, he came back and out of the blue announced that he would be coming to KL, and asked if we could meet up. We did and I later visited him at his hometown. There I was introduced to a pair of twins. And thus began another beautiful friendship with one of the twins. We girls will later pair up, share things we know bout him with each other and tease him mercilessly and endlessly.

Among the things we found out was that he sent us identical mails – he only changed the names. In my case, it was so obvious that it was a mass mail as the letter was not only typewritten, it was also addressed to me as: “Dear Whatever,”

We are still close friends, all three of us, though we live in different parts of the country. Of course we have technology to thank. I chat with this girlfriend on YM and we used to email chat so much that our guy friend will say that if only our bosses knew we would have gotten “The Worst Employee” award.

And this guy friend, he still takes months to reply to an email. I have long ago given up. When he happens to call me once in a purple moon, I will still greet him with: “Whoa! The female pig must be able to climb a tree. You actually called!”

These two friendships, it started out very simply … I didn’t think that we could be friends this long, given the circumstances and distance … but we did … and these two friends, they are the bestest friends one could have and could ask for. I will never regret the day we got to know each other as they are and have been such blessings in my life.

And if you look at things the right perspective, a lot of good things do begin from really simple things - things that we are sometimes too busy to stop and cherish. A card from a friend. A phone call from a friend long ago. A smile perhaps. All these can turn into something beautiful and wonderful.