With Those Who Matter

We went out for celebratory drinks with the friends.

It must be the new year or something. Perhaps it's because we're all turning 30 or hitting the mid-30s and the big 4 of 0.

Amidst the numerous sombre wakes and funerals we separately or as a group attended over the last 2 weeks, there were also truckloads of good news streaming in.

There were new jobs grabbed, lucrative stock options, astute profitable investments; exciting business ventures endeavored, rewarding charity work, great experiences in volunteerism; brave new steps taken to fulfil dreams long-in-the-making, and the friends' well-deserved promotions at work; overseas postings, major moves to foreign yet familiar lands.

It wasn't a mad party. Amidst the bubbling joy, all the friends wanted was a quiet nook to bask in the warmth and acceptance of friends for who they really were, in spite of all the glitter.

We raised a quiet toast to a love for our chosen career paths, a passion for the job, a thirst for life and living, and beneath it all, that rock-solid friendship between us.

So we're all going out to dinner.