Friends

Crazy day today.

Got to the office, running miserably late. Scheduled to interview someone for an opening on my staff in 15, no, 10, actually, in 6 minutes. Hadn't even looked at her resume. Wait...was it a she or a he??

Shoved my lunch bag into the fridge in the staff kitchen, completely squishing someone's pie in the process, transforming it from pie to pancake in 0.4 seconds (oh boy...memos will fly tomorrow: "Food Vandalism in the Staff Kitchen!").

Ran...actually CRASHED into the office. My assistant looked up and said, "Oh, you just missed a phone call. Your best friend from Hong Kong called. Said he'll call back in 20 minutes"

What the...? Who?

Never mind...turned on my computer, waiting for the darn thing to boot up...frantically clicking the mouse trying to "speed it up" (Have you ever done that? Why do we do that?)

Phone rang again...for me.

I recognized the voice instantly. Oh my gosh....

It was, as the message said earlier, my best friend from Hong Kong. A friend I grew up with.

We haven't spoken in years. He heard that "something" had happened to me. He took it upon himself to look up where I work (I have no clue how he did it), found my number and called.

Just like that, time stood still. Like hitting the pause button, all the craziness of the morning felt like it's been put on hold.

Sometimes, that's what happens when a friend "walks in".

Given the fact that we haven't talked to each other in years, it was a remarkably brief conversation. He simply said: "Listen, it doesn't matter what happened. I don't need to know. I just called to make sure you are okay. Don't let anyone judge you. Don't pay attention to what people say. They don't matter. Don't give up. You will survive. You'll make it." After promising to keep in touch, he hung up and let me get back to work.

Among the few truly life changing lessons I have learned during this "episode" of my life, one of them is that I learned who are my friends, and who aren't. Having been betrayed and hurt by those whom I thought were friends to me, I now look upon that as a blessing. Because it allowed me to be taught and shown what real friends are supposed to be, and I have been humbled.

A friend looks you up, tracks you down, searches you out and won't stop until he does.

A friend does not care to know everything. He cares about you.

A friend does not judge you, and stands up for you against those who do.

A friend won't quit on you, and won't let you quit on yourself.

A friend does all that, simply because he is your friend.

To my friend, whom I know is reading this: Thank you. There isn't much more I can do or say, but between friends, I hope that's enough.

In the meantime, my interviewee showed up...I had to get through the hour long meeting "pretending" I was there.

I did alright though. After all, I played that game for most of my adult life.

But no more. I'm out. I'm done.