sometimes, we never know what we have right there in the palm of hands until it's over and it's time to say goodbye.

then, we wish we had the chance to hold and to latch on and to squeeze so tight, to grasp onto it and never want to let go. But by then it's all too late, oh so late, and it's all gone forever.

humans, fickle beings. man with his fallen nature, we tend to take many things for granted, the people around us and the people we might meet in future as merely individuals in our daily routine, perhaps sometimes adding a little spice and excitement to the humdrum of the day but that's about all they are to us.

maybe that's why everyday there're so many relationships soured, so many tempers flaring, so many loud voices and hasty actions, violent gestures and a continuous hurting of feelings that tears into our very souls so hard but yet we choose to not face up to reality and mask our emotions in a wall of false confidence and a facade of strength when really, all we want to do is just open up and pour out whatever we want to say and just truly feel, feel like humans were supposed to, even if just for a short while. we do things without realizing them, sometimes in the quest for selfish gains, sometimes without thinking, sometimes even thinking that it's right. But inevitably there will be others who get hurt as a consequence of our actions.

we moan and we grumble and we complain about how life is tough and our teenage angst screams for attention. we think life's a drag, responsibilities are irritating, and we wish for a time warp to adulthood such that we would be in control of our own lives, thinking that we would be able to do anything we wished. in reality, there could be nothing further from the truth. our education years have swept past us in the blink of an eye, building up and demolishing relationships, leaving us with memories and a wave of emotions emanating so greatly from our beings that sometimes we don't even know what's going on. the school grounds where we spend such a great deal of our time and where we experience some of the best feelings we've ever had, and maybe some of the worst - they're full of meaning although they might, at times, seem foreboding and cold, especially if they're reminders of one's failures in our endeavours.

but our education years and our teenage years will only be there for such a short period of time. when we're thrown into the flurry of the working world we will, without a doubt, look back at these times and wish we were back here doing what we are. it's always the same when you want to relieve the times you've had as a carefree child playing and laughing and basking in the warmth of the sun with your friends and loved ones. but all too soon we'll be donning the squares of graduation and flinging them into the air. the boys will troop down, albeit unwillingly, to learn how to defend their country, and in the process of doing so many lose the ties they've forged over the years, especially those with the girls. who's to say they'll stay faithful in the universities where there's an abundance of older guys who've been around for longer and had a greater amount of experience in life's ways. the strongest relationship between a couple might be weathered down without constant contact and effort on both parts to stay committed. it's already so hard for couples - how harder would it be for friends to stay in touch and to not lose their relationships when half our cohort's away while another continues their studies.

and so it's really the same as carrying around a sequinned bag of jewels for such a long time, holding it with precious care, only to trip and fall over the stone called 'responsibility' and the rock called 'committment' and to hear the tinkling sound of the diamonds scattering onto the ground, only to find yourself unable to pick them back up as they disappear into the dust. relationships are as precious, if not more, than such riches, and should not be taken lightly. for without our friends and family, what would we be? without the people there to have our back and to share weal and woe and to laugh and to grin along with us in school, there would be no meaning at all.

at the end of it all you get a paper with your qualifications, the fruits of your labour and the effort you've put in. but if they were able to record the relationships you've made, the brotherhoods that've been born, the kindred spirits that have been rekindled - what would your relationships result slip look like?