JF

Amazingly bumped into JF yesterday in the school Mac. (Don't ask me why I was in school. A million and one reasons) Almost couldn't recognise him. He had ballooned so much. So different from the JF that I used to know. He was with his lady friend, and was walking with the help of a crutch. He had just met with a traffic accident, and it cost him months to heal. He had signed on earlier as a combat officer, and now the accident is affecting his career.

I remember him many years ago back in secondary school. He was one of the guys I really respected. He was a Scout, and basically knew everything that has to do about campcraft and outdoor survival. He was lean, fit and the envy of the guys. He could do anything. Also, he was humble, a nice guy.

But what a hand fate has dealt him! He has to be made a Service or Engineering officer now after the accident. The bonds he had made during the hols before now count for nothing. Conversely me, a less-than-average joe, having drifted through secondary school and then JC, and then army, followed by uni. I have no outstanding achievements outside academics, and even there I wasn't anywhere excellent. The riskiest thing I had ever done was to decide to join the JC sailing team, and even in that I failed. I dropped out after the first year. Yet here I am, safe and sound, no big injury to me.

I wonder if it's destined. That one should proceed with life at a certain speed. If you drive too fast in the beginning, you are bound to slow down later in your life, while if you maintain a comfortable pace all your life, you are likely to reach the end safe and sound. Hence does life reward the mundane, the common, the masses, with nothing to distinguish one from the other? Should it be that way?

"I'd rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special..."
--Steel Magnolias (1989)