Category Archives: thinking thoughts

friend for keeps

Posted by rob on

me and my best friend has known each other since our senior year back in highschool.  he was my classmate and we were both transferees from different schools.  we had the same barkada  (group of friends) but after graduation and college started, we lost contact of most of them.

i still keep with me the snail letters and greeting cards he sent me during those days when text messaging and facebook was non-existent.  i am just glad that i have met someone like him, someone who is real, someone unpretending.

i have met people who has made a difference in my life in one way or another that became my friends where most of them left and very little stayed.  it just proves that friendship is tested through time, through thick and thin – i thank god for my best friend for he, is a blessing. 🙂

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this post ticks off one of my “10 things i have not done before” list where me and my high school best friend spent a weekend in panglao island, bohol last july, 2012 (post to follow!).

real friends

Posted by rob on

what is a real friend?

a real friend is someone you are not afraid to show the ugliest in you, for he accepts you as you are. you can tell him the grossiest stuff you’ve ever done and you’ll both laugh about it till you have tears in your eyes. you can brag things you have accomplished and he will not interpret this as arrogance for he is true to himself that he is happy for you.

a real friend does not expect anything back from you when he has done a favor for you, the friendship that you offer is already his reward. he is by your side when you hate your life, he will listen even you’re talking nonsense, he is there with you even if you cannot afford to buy yourself a cup of coffee for you are broke. your relationship does not involve money, for it is never an issue.

a real friend will tell you if he sees you are wrong, he may argue with you but he will still respect your own opinion. he will never leave you alone in distress, you can cry and scream and holler and act like crazy but he will just be in one corner grinning at you.

real friends are tested through time, it does not matter if you have not seen each other for months, for the moment you’re with him, everything is just the same as it was before.

i thank god for my real friends, they are one of my life’s greatest blessing.

self sacrifice

Posted by rob on

a filipino overseas foreign worker was found dead inside the lavatory of a ‘gulf air’ plane the other day. that plane is the same one i take every time i go home for days off. i read he took his own life while the plane was preparing to land in manila, using a ‘clothing article’ to asphyxiate himself by hanging.

it is not easy being away from one’s family. here in the middle east, there are instances that one will be assigned for work remotely, with limited ways of communication. i have been working here in saudi arabia for five years and have seen co-workers who were in the brink of ‘losing’ it, specially when there are problems back home with their families.

i remember way back, my ma never tells my father who is also in saudi arabia any ‘bad news’ as much as possible. she even warns me and my siblings not to write or call about to him anything that might make him worry or make him sad because she said being away from us is already hard for him and it will just leave him feeling helpless. i followed my father’s footsteps of working here in the mideast, it was then that i appreciated my father more, for i clearly saw the sacrifice he did for our family.

i am thinking of the man on that plane. is it self-sacrifice or his last resort to escape? his exact reason no one will really know for he has brought it with him to his grave.