Saturday, May 13, 2006

11年ぶり

I always thought that as time goes by, only women's attractiveness goes down the drain as age increases the number of wrinkles on the face or the weight of the body. Little did I realize that men's attractiveness also faces a certain immediate threats as the years go by.

Meeting a bunch of TAS '95 graduates, for the first time I had a slight taste of what it must have been like for mom and dad to sit around all these years with their college/HS friends lamenting the bygone youth. I never understood why in the world parents spent SO MUCH TIME exchanging information on the best doctors in town, the recently released vitamins in the store, or a new developed technology that helps minimize the black rings right below the eyes. Tonight, though, I sat through a conversation that covered from what real estate properties are the best for investment in town to which brand of bald-head prevention treatment is the most effective.

The latter topic, esp., went on for a good 20 mins. 20 mins, yes. No exaggeration. 20 mins.

Some people say that if you somehow lost touch with your high school sweethearts or childhood sweeties, it's best never to track them down. The sight of someone, for whom you used to have butterfly feelings deep in the stomach, turning into a 180-pound walking-beer-belly just isn't the most pleasant one to witness. So is the sight of the young beauty in memory turning into a mother of 4 kids who has consistently become the left-over food recycling bin at the dinner table a sight better to be avoided.

Though I still believe in the ultimate goodness of meeting old friends, yes, tonight I too came to realize that there's some truth in those sayings.

No no, I didn't meet my childhood sweetie or high school sweetheart. Just a bunch of friends from high school whom I haven't seen since 1995. Yes, 11 years have passed.

Granted that I'm 4 years younger than them and neither has the enough age nor wealth to start thinking about real estate investment or bald-head treatment (thank goodness I'll never need to deal with that), it was a bit shocking to see how we - in a collective way - indeed aren't the youngest in town to boast the greatest among of energy.

"I went back to TAS to visit. Only 3 teachers plus one counselor who used to be there in '95 are still teaching there. Gosh, I looked around and said to my friend - '這群小朋友們。他們兩個人的歲數加起來都沒有我的大'", one of them said.

Then followed by the most prolonged bitter-sweet laughter of the night.

At least I still have 4 more years to wander and waste before I need to REALLY start getting serious with life by indulging some of my non-study time on real estate investment or toiling my heart and mind about marriage possibility. 4 years at least. Though only God knows how fast those 4 years are going to pass by as well.

Time is the only thing we can never race against. The forever winner.

梅ちゃん at 10:27:00 AM

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