Dot-to-Dot

One of my dearest friends from long ago came to visit me this weekend. I've not seen her for thirteen years and I didn't know what to expect. Apparently, neither did she. However, it was amazing how we just fell into habit and were babbling away, filling in the blanks of the years apart. And I found that we are not that different. We have the same outlook in life, the same wants and desires and the same core principles as well as fetish for shoes and bags. I know that there is this whole school of thought, where you are a combination of the six people closest to you. While this may be indicative of who I am now, to find that the people I grew up with to be so alike is kind of weird. Were our parents instrumental in bringing us together as Shell brats abroad? Or were we drawn to each other due to similar personality traits? People who are similar either repulse each other or find their closest friends in each other. We can either like what we see or dislike the other person for being just like us. Yet I wonder if we were capable of making this distinction as children. Maybe we just didn't like someone 'just because they annoyed me' or we found little Joe next door to be 'the one person who will do anything for me including letting me play with his favourite Supersoaker and standing there while I soaked him and he didn't even get angry at me'. No I am not revealing who little Joe is.. Ha!

As I look back at the different people I have left behind in various phrases of my life, I am certain that each one of them have the same drive to succeed in life. Each one of them are capable and independent women who will continuously challenge themselves in their respective fields and each one of us are strong family people. Surprisingly, of the various 'best friends' I have, there are two corporate lawyers, two pharmacists, one consultant and an almost doctor. I wanted to be a lawyer once and to think that the girls I dominated the playground with as a child would both grow up to be lawyers. Did we have the foresight to single out other lawyers in our groups of playmates? If that were the case, I'm glad I never got the idea to be a podiatrist when I was a kid. I would have no friends if that were the case! Maybe that explains my lack of entertainment of late.

It would be interesting to note how each one of us make our choices in this long road of life. We will probably have two kids and a puppy/cat/hamster while juggling our full-time jobs and an over-achieving husband. We will probably never learn how to cook rice properly (okay, just me) and can live on dessert alone. We will also have a collection of shoes known to husband along with a secret stash hidden somewhere he doesn't know about. We will be overworked and complain about the lack of time while secretly enjoy the stress of our jobs. And one day, we will realise that our families matter and will probably drop the million dollar deals to tend to nappy rash and skinned knees. Don't wonder when this will happen, because I believe we will all be popping out the babies before the age of thirty. Trust me on this one, we are too vain to leave maternity late!