Life goes on. It does feel somewhat surreal for me at the moment. You tend to look forward with some blurred vision, of what your final year will be like. I do not just mean, the ending of your life as a student and many of the virtues and vices associated with being at university (lectures, tutorials, coursework and exams). But also how you think you will be different person at the end of this process. I have grown in stature from those early days of October 2000. Student life on it’s own hasn’t changed me. It is the situation and circumstances I have found myself in. The whole period is a transition in your life. Much like many that we face throughout our lives. However, it is for once less controlled by others and you are in the driving seat. When you go from first to primary (or middle) school, although the change you face is at times daunting, the presence of friendly and familiar faces, makes the whole experience far less intimidating. Of course, there is sense of control and belong to the whole affair. Your move is local and in my case, was literally next door. Your group of friends does not diminish, but grows. I have long believed that, one should have a transparent view with regards to friends and friendship. “Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on.” I had a preconception of those friends that would always be look upon as those ‘precious few’. I also knew, those that would be gone forever. That is not to say I am not bitter at those that have gone and in fact those that remain. When I left my primary school, to head into the big bad world of the secondary school, there was two people I really wanted to keepin contact with. I had departed several months ago, but was never far from my thoughts. The other, had grown to become best friend, in ways that make him irreplaceable. Now, some ten years since the day we parted, I look around my circle of friends, and find that indeed my prophecy has come true. His place among my friends is still very much vacant. You live and learn, but you also at times, wonder why. Why? Why isn’t friendship such an easy game to play? Why do we make mistakes and the ripples of these lead us to lose friends? I know at times, I have been sole reason that a friendship collapsed. Of course, I regret this being the case. But as I’ve been told on countless occasions.”Life’s too short”. Reconciliation is always on the cards and I am always willing to accept someone back into my life from the cold. Always. But there comes a point, when even the best of friends have to move on. Their personal circumstances change to such an extend that you no longer know who they are. From spending everyday together at school or college, you go to live a detached friendship via text message, e-mail and the occasional phone call. The letters that did start to become the customary way to catch up on news, slowly begin to fade, just like the friendship. I was thinking about this fact, during the c ourse of last week. How many of my friends from my childhood are still with me today? By childhood I mean, when my age was still in single figures and I was in the best decade of all time! This wasn’t some strange idle thought that crossed my mind, as I walked home from Uni, but a succinctly question, which I had posed upon myself. I searched, frankly. Hoping that at least one fragment of my past, remained true to me today. It didn’t take that long to discover who that person was. It could only be my dear friend, David Jones, whom I have known since we were both 5. A total of almost 18 years of friendship. A friendship, that although has had it’s bad patches (we lost touch in the mid-90s), has with the power of hindsight been the most important friendship I have ever had. You are not asked to be someone’s best man, without some sort of recognition of friendship. Looking back, perhaps I was asked, to enable David to show his true feelings for me as a friend. It was in fact a humble honour,even if only given exactly a month’s notice. To read all about the most crucial, successful and beneficial role, I have had to date, check the May 2003 entries.