I used to have friends only from my age group. Then slowly I became very good friends with some of my CCA seniors and started to search for friends who are older than me (I can't believe I actually went about looking for an older pen pal on the teenage magazine 3 years ago! Now this pal has already became my msn pal and he has even became my neighbour! Power right? ^^). Then I overcame myself and convinced myself to mix around with younger kids who may be really childish in their actions and thinking aka juniors.

Well, in the end all my friends are still in the age categories quite near to mine, since we all either meet in school or just happened to read through the same magazine.

After taking up the current temporary job, my new friends start to come from very different age groups.

I have a very good friend named Rosalynn and she's just 7 years old! We share secrets, share candies, play hangman together and sometimes she'll even help me staple the huge stacks of worksheets which I must photocopy everyday. If she's free, she'll even drop by the tuition centre early to keep me company because she knows that I will feel lonely. That day she even brought me an orange to snack on cuz she saw me eating very unhealthy cup noodles as my dinner a few weeks ago. So thoughtful hor? ^^

Then there's this P4 kid who got scolded by me for being rude. He kena my scolding till very cham and I complained to his parents and auntie some more! Hahaha... But in the end we became great friends lor, he'll even buy me sweets and we'll try out new types of candies together. Our common topic is... hand phone technology! Well, you can't imagine how tech-savvy kids can be nowadays~

Hmm, and I start to have friends at the other end of the age groups. I chatted quite abit with an Indian mother and shared our views on very different topics in life. We talked about everything - from interesting health tips to her love story. Ha! And that day she was asking if I have a bf and she started to advise me about relationships. I usually end up learning from her life experiences after chatting with her. Sometimes it's better for a person who had went through life's challenges to share with the next generation as a friend. I really benefited alot from her teaching... Anw now I know how to find a bf le! Hahaha...

There is this father who always come on Sunday to bring his daughter over for tuition and he'll usually chat with me too. We were discussing about my future (education, jobs etc) when he shared his work experiences and his encounters with office politics with me. Whoa, that day's chatting session with him is really useful lor... Cuz I really need the advice mah. The working world is full of backstabbers, liars and monsters de, and most of the time they are disguised so well that you won't even know they are who they are. He lent me a management self-help book written by his friend (the book has got the author's signature!) titled "Hell at Work". Will laugh till peng one. Cuz everything written inside is so ridiculous and yet so true about this world's companies' management, employers, employees and customers. It's so bad that it's funny... Well, I guess sometimes we have to be more optimistic la, we should just laugh and see bad situations in a different light, and then solve them all purposefully, rather than feel sad or discouraged by some insensitive people whom we may never see again after this phase of our life.

And there is a parent whom I've never seen, but only heard. We only talked through phone for a few times and we are already friends le lor, we give advice to each other de. She'll ask me all about university application (his son same age as me) and teenagers' mindsets while I'll learn from her life experiences she shared with me. E.g. how to identify backstabbers aka baddies and how to protect myself.

And not to forget the various parents and teachers who helped me da bao dinner and snacks when I am damn busy at work... Sometimes we feel sad because of some people's bad attitude towards us, but there are some other people who give us the strength and hope to push on in the face of troubles. I saw this in a book called <<飞ing>> by a Korean author Park Kwang-soo: "因为人而跌倒。因为人而起来。因为人而感受挫折，因为人而充满希望！"

Well all I can say is 这个世界还是美丽的。
If I can't forgive, I'll try to forget. If I can't forget, I'll just have to read more self-help books. Haha~ I'll learn how to not belittle myself with all the baddies going against me and be brave!

"不要因为自己现在的样子太娇小而觉得失望，因为就算再怎么高大的树木，刚开始在地上扎根的时候，也不过是一株又小又软弱的幼苗而已…"

我们都是在成长的幼苗！加油加油往上冲！^^

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