On The Bus

I remember before I come here to UK one of the international office people said something about Malaysians being clicky. I asked her if there are many Malaysians in Warwick and her reply was ‘Oh, go anywhere on campus and you will see a bunch of them ‘bersama-sama’ (together-gether.).’ Ok she didn’t say ‘bersama-sama’ but you get my point. She told me how clicky Malaysians are in Warwick. Which is really true…

Somehow I ended up Not having many close Malaysian friends. I swear I didn’t intended it this way. I know many Malaysians but I am not close to any Malaysians except Shu who I knew from college. After 3 years here, all those (lucky peeps! Kidding..) I am Closest with are people who have similar roots like me. Singaporeans, Indonesian, Mauritius, Thai, Bruneian , Hongkie, Taiwanese... Strangely I don’t have any close Chinese friends from China. I guess the reason being most of them looking at me strangely when I say I am Malaysian and my grandparents are from China and I can’t write or read Mandarin. I know I suck but at least I can speak and I can understand if you are bitching about me in Mandarin.

I always believe that friendship is a kind of ‘yuan fen’ (fate). It is not easy to have that ‘yuan fen’ and it is a blessing to meet someone and be friends. Imagine there are so many people in the world and you end up meeting here in Warwick. That is the amazingness of ‘yuan fen’. Meeting someone and connect is like so ‘shen qi’ (amazing)! Traveling half the globe to meet here. How cool is that!

But at the same time I can’t help but think if unconsciously we actually choose our friends. We decide who we want to be friends with and actually make a conscious effort to be friends with them. And unconsciously we will ‘click’ with people with similar backgrounds, cultures and principles. We could be different in many ways but a cultural bond has already been pre-established. Feels like a kind of unconscious biasness. But I also realized it is something beyond our control.

Friends enter your life for a reason in their own season. Separation is inevitable but the bonded memories will always remain and cherished. (This is for you Fel! Remember to text me 'hao shi' (good news) in future. I will text you also. winks..)

"The end is the start of a New Begining...' - Daphne Yuan Jia Yu.

Our life is like a bus journey. We meet different characters on the bus. Pass by different sceneries. Reach our destination and move on to the next destination. Saying goodbye to many amazing encounters but bringing with us many beautiful memories of those chanced encounters.

For PJ those beautiful memories are nicely tucked in a pretty pink box in her messy pea brain.