KUDOS TO A FRIEND

I stifled a yawn … hmmmm … it was getting late. I dared to check the time, and my watch read 3 am …. Yawn ….. I was tired, but I still had a long night ahead. I had to complete my assignment at all costs … yawnnnnn … there I go again …Mercifully my friend drops in and invites me for a cup of coffee, he was a life saver.

I stretch myself on my way out and my joints crunched under the effort. I made my cup of cappuccino and he brewed his usual strong tea. I needed the caffeine to keep me awake. We start to chat, at which I am adept, in the students lounge. It was that time of the day when u tend to be a bit melancholic. The tone was just right to discuss LIFE. We start talking of a recent class assignment we had done, where we talk of our life in detail and all the phases we went thru.

The sleep, the melancholy and the time led us to drop of our individual façade’s and be ourselves. The rampart, which we build around ourselves to protect us, was broken. Rid of the pretences we shared our life. And suddenly I realised how much grief my friend had in his heart. Ensconced deep within him, shrouded from the world. The magnitude of the suffering, know only to him and for me to guess. A shudder ran thru me as I tried to fathom his grief. If you knew my friend, such grief could never be attributed to him. He’s ever smiling, cheerful & gregarious. I was awestruck that someone with so much grief could be so outgoing, smiling & ever helping.

I guess that showed me the true strength of the human spirit, the will power. An entity never considered nor given the due it deserves. Our inner strength helping us overcome all difficulties and soldier on in life.

We as humans have this amazing gift to rebound from failures. The tenacity, the courage and a never ending flow of optimism, which drives us on. An obstinacy to defy life and demure failings underline the paradox that we are. It showed me that we could choose the way we want to be, and not let situations govern us. I realised that it is up-to each one of us to plot the course we want to travel.

Like they say “if there is a will, there is a way” and my friend exemplified this adage. And thanks to my friend, i will never wallow in self-pity or grief ever again, because I know that tomorrow is always there. And there are people who grieve more than I ever will.