28 years completed!!! Thoughts on friendships - life as a train...

1 AM... Back in Madrid, alone in a living room... Kings of Convenience - "Misread" - flowing from the PC speakers...

Another anniversary has passed in this relentless walk towards the end of my 20s... Naturally I chose to spend it in Portugal, yet again to be close to family and friends... Given the fact that I am living abroad I decided to make something special!

Last year I got together for drinks, with my AIESEC/Uni friends and my P&G gang... This year, I organised a dinner and included in the previous my childhood neighbourhood/school gang! he he he! It was cool to look at a room and see many important people to me during those 3 quite different stages of my life :) Unfortunately, there was no international representation, but given the emails and calls that I received I know many of you were there in spirit! Next year, the innovation will be to include my sisters and brothers-in-law (they are demanding it!!) which should be an interesting mix with the previous :))

A couple of thoughts kept running through my mind during these days... One was on friendships...

My father, in his yearly X-mas speech, spoke about the analogy of life as a train ride, where people hop in and out as the train goes through different stations. I really liked it as one can reflect about one's life and identify different segments of the trip and different passengers in one's train. This year and specially this weekend, became a great opportunity to see different kinds of passengers...
- the ones that entered and did not walk out (and hopefully will not!!), regardless of distance, age, cycle of life, etc. (and that will stay in spirit forever...);
- the ones who stayed for a while, left a signature on the bench/wall/window (positive or negative, bigger or smaller) but eventually left...
- the ones who walked in and walked out shortly after...
- the ones who were kicked out!

Looking at the previous distinctions, yet again some conclusions came to my mind, that can pretty much be considered an inspiration for next year...
- I will make sure the people in the first group KNOW they are there! I don't think I do that very oftenly... In this fu#$%d up world, these moments are needed...
- I will learn to say goodbye to the interesting/cool people as the train moves further, as one cannot stay in touch with all of them...
- I will stop wasting time trying to keep people in the train that want to leave... not to say to kick some out!

Some statistics...
- my family occupies the most important carriage, and with a new niece joining in the beginning of March!
- the longest route passenger is there already for 22 years... jeeeze...
- people taking the "special seat" never stayed for long... mmm... food for thought ;)
- the short route passengers normally show up at night, when the train conductor is slightly drunk and stops everywhere!!
(...)

As my train goes abroad for the second time in my life, it will be interesting to see who stays and who goes. Yes, distance will make the contact harder, but for the real Friends I firmly believe this makes no difference. This weekend was a great way to say "goodbye" for the dip I will now do to this new "home" of mine...

And as for other people hanging around in the incoming train stations, I need to keep in mind how easy it was when we were kids... Just chillin in a park... we would approach other kids and simply start talking and playing with them! This used to be a piece of cake twenty years ago so how hard can it be now in a new town??? It's Definitely time to "dip in" the spanish stations...

And as for the second set of thoughts, on life and love, lets leave those for tomorrow...

Carpe Diem!

PS - Holland in 2 weeks! Who's coming over!??!!?