April 11, 1999

Convergence

It's been hard to write these Diogenes's lately. It's not that I don't think as much or that I've stopped observing everything around me. I watched a newspaper blow around campus today... saw it both this morning and evening bouncing around. I thought about that, but everything I came up with is not meant for this medium. My focus has changed. When looking up, I don't go for the sky, but stop midway to think about my friends.

Something in me has realized how precious my time is with them. Graduations and real lives are coming sooner for them than me. Sure, we can keep in touch, but the nights spent together talking and laughing just because we all get it will soon be rare visages of history. One day, I will be alone; they will be gone.

I have other friends, but this one group is different. We started differently. It was not the classes here that brought us together; we're all very different majors. Sometimes we have shared clubs or classes, but the bonds were forged more than that. Even after classes or involvement perished, we hung together. Our approaches to life are so different as well--furious pursuit to apathetic indifference, deep contemplation to lighthearted frivolity. We all like to laugh, though.

We're not the Friends of television fame. Our bonds are not that strong, and I at least know of underlying strife between us. We each have our grievances and do our best to put them aside. This does not always happen. Also, some of the bonds are stronger than others, so the group splits off easily. None of this is wrong.

Still, when someone is missing from the group, my mind thinks of them. It's as if a countdown counter is clicking away how much precious time is dwindling away.

I do my best to be with them, for I guess this is what it finally means to have true friends.