I had never imagined that I would come to this country for a graduate degree. Not even 3-4 years ago. It was a quick chain reaction of incidents that led me here. Where I am now might not be the perfect consequence of that reaction. But it really couldn’t be any better. I am content with where I am now.

My first acquaintance with Miss. D (refer previous post, Someone to call my best friend) close to 20 years ago, is really a marvel to my life. How would one suppose to know the strong long lasting friendship start from just that one brief moment?

I certainly would not have thought about getting to know a very close friend upon my first arrival in this continent. Sure, I was aware that I would know many people here. Yet, I wouldn’t expect that I would find a true close friend, whom I can share, many things outside work. She’s AA (refer post Glad to know you). Even though our getting together was just the few months, our bond isn’t torn apart after her return to her home. We’ve been regularly chatting and emailing each other. She’s very different from my best friend, Miss. D, whom I knew since childhood. You know, there’s always some obvious difference between childhood friends and friends you know when you’re a grown-up. But we both click instantly.

I have another good friend since college. I wrote about her in a Chinese post earlier on (August 2005). I’m not going to translate that entry. But it’s really worth mentioning how we knew each other. We found each other in a computer lab. She’s not my course mate at all. In fact she’s a year senior than me and she’s from a different faculty! It just happened that she was taking that subject as her elective and I was initially enrolled as a double degree (dual degree) student. While I was struggling with my information system assignment, this friend who was apparently occupying the computer next to me, for some strange reason saw my worried expression. She offered me with some help! Since then we've just somehow gotten closer and became really good friends. Now, if you don’t think this is a stupefaction friendship, I don’t know what would you call it. I have another close friend, whom I knew for years. We never shared anything much in common. We didn’t like each other that much, even before knowing each other. Yet, it was just one casual coincidence that brought us together. And then we found that, “Hey, this is a cool girl. I like her!” Years later, we still stay in contact. Isn’t that awesome?

“Hey, I really like you.” This line came out of my senior pal, KL’s mouth while she and I were taking care of the dishes. I wasn’t that close to her because she’s a lot senior than me in terms of age and career (she’s already an Associate Professor). I mean, we are from two distinct social circles, apart from the badminton team I was initially participating. I thought she was just joking. But she assured me she did mean what she said.

“You know, you’re a trustworthy person. I like you.” This was an unexpected compliment from NK, my coworker.

Wow, do I deserve all these compliments and good words from these people? I haven’t done anything particularly nice to them. Yet they still think I’m a nice person. Of course I’m not saying that we should do something nice to get compliments. All I am saying is, I have never expected this. I know all my flaws. But hey, I’m very astoundingly flattered.

All right, I could go on and on to share more about my other amazing surprise stories. But that’s not really the point of this entry. Neither do I want to make this entry to portray myself as a nice person that everyone just likes me. No, seriously, I don’t mean it that way at all. All I am trying to say is; life is full of surprises!

Yes, life is full of surprises. Be they friendship, compliments/flattering remarks, romance, career, family or anything that just happens anywhere, anytime. Just when we are calculating and mourning our losses, just when we are upset of our dramas, just when we are frustrated and disappointed of things that we want or whatever…we have failed to realize that there are plenty of surprises in our lives already, and more to come. While calculating what we don’t have, we’ve missed out a lot of what we already have. We only see the surprises when we have least/no expectation.

Life remains hopeful. Have faith!