HEY... ITS BEEN AWHILE...

Just one day into this long weekend of mine, I received a call from my best buddy from college. He was the kind of guy who would not call for no reason so I answered his call with great expectance. "Hey Bernard... There is a class gathering this weekend, wanna come along?" Those words immediately weighed me down. After all, what I can remember of my class in college is as little as what I had learnt since entering the NS, National Service for short (Nonsensical Service for me), a phase in which innocent young men are captured by force to enter this unfortunate service sector. Though it is meant to instil some national pride in us young men, I do not see how it can be achieved by doing this. But I digress. I asked for some time to consider about the gathering as I was torn between going and not going, and promised to get back to my buddy soon.

For all I know, the enjoyment of the long weekend had been taken away from me as all that filled my mind was to think about whether to go for that little gathering of mine. I weighed the pros and cons, thought about what better things to do besides reuniting with my college classmates and even tried to formulate presentable yet reasonable excuses if my final decision was not to turn up at the gathering. The reason for this big hoo-ha was quite simple. Those classmates of mine were not your usual classmates. To put it simply, they gave me a sense of distrust and impressed upon me that they were my classmates just for the sake of being my classmates, unlike some of my friends whom I really consider as close, clean-cut friends. It may just be me being slightly introverted but one can tell a true friend from a fiend. There were certain incidents which put some of my classmates in a difficult spot and which I felt certainly could have been avoided. Come to speak of, there was another incident too in which I was involved with (unwillingly) and its haste conclusion simply disgusts me. I am not one to bear grudges but there is a saying that goes 'You can forgive but never forget'. Yes, when people come together there are bound to be wrongings and misunderstandings but these so-called 'misunderstandings' do not stop coming. A deeper interaction with my classmates reveals much about their innermost thoughts and the revelations are shocking. Almost each and every one of them will have displeasing opinions about a certain person. I certainly think that one could live with lesser enemies.

And once people sharing the same opinions and attitude come together, they form something called a clique. The ones left over who do not belong in any cliques happen to be those who tend to stay neutral, and I belong to one of them. This leaves me with nothing to talk about with the rest of my scheming classmates, only the two or three innocent neutrals. News was that the two or three neutrals' attendance at the gathering was yet to be confirmed and I was left in a dilemma. My best buddy had to be there as he was pressed to go.

I began to think reasonably. I must say this doesn't happen very often with me. They were after all, my college friends who, fortunately or unfortunately, spent the past two years with me. We may not have gone through thick or thin but we did rode through the rough college course together. Having shared joy and sorrow, I have to learn to accept that they were once part of my life before. Since it was lunch on a Sunday, I suppose it was no harm to see them again, to relive the old times. That last piece of thinking got me really glad for my maturity had began to show a year into young adulthood. I had found a conclusion to my dilemma.

It was a beautiful sunny Sunday as I awoke. I slept late into the morning and went ahead with my breakfast nearing the afternoon. After which, I proceeded to indulge myself in my latest acquisition, Winning Eleven 8. They may be my classmates but to leave them in my memories would be satisfying enough for me.