STay Connected

To those who have read my previous posts, you would have noticed by now that my topics revolve around these: my friends, graduate school, work, love, and life.

And for some reason, I keep on repeating myself over and over when it comes to my sentiments about these topics precisely because they occupy my mind most of the time. Today, I'd just have to do it again.

This post is dedicated to all those who have been separated from some of their friends and loved ones by any form of distance.

When we miss those we love who are far from us, we first tend to look back at our past. Whatever happened to us in the past, when we miss someone, we choose to remember only the good things. Not so long ago, reconstructed memories and faded photographs were the sources of our nostalgia. Today, digital photos and old e-mails in our inboxes can also give us the same effect.

And then after reading old letters/e-mails or looking at photos (both digital and otherwise), we'd decide to go online, to write an e-mail, to chat in our YM, or to make a phone call (roaming, long distance, etc). We'd do all these just to ask our loved ones this beautiful question: HOW ARE YOU? which turn even more beautiful when we truly wait for their response. And we'd sympathize with them when they say that life sucks or we'd be happy for them when they are.

With all the things that we could do now, we were made to believe that TECHNOLOGY has kept us connected. But sometimes it also works the other way around. Sometimes we think that we could write that e-mail much later since it could be sent with one click anyway or we'd think that we could call later on because we don't want to disturb them if they're busy adjusting to new life. Until one day, we'd realize that they weren't too busy. We were.

I saw this foreign commercial on television. Everyone was texting and looking at his/her cellphone while walking down the street, while having a dinner date, while watching a theater performance, while at work, and the list went on. The commercial was striking because it spent a long time building up these images of people using their cellphones that one would think it was a telecommunications company's ad. And then in the middle of all these, a voice-over could be heard: the world has grown smaller but not necessarily closer.

It was a Close-up commercial.

But whether it was Colgate, Close-up, or Happee, my point of sharing this particular ad is not because of the toothpaste. It's because of the striking line: the world has grown smaller but not necessarily closer.

I'll let you think about that one.

In the meantime, when most of your friends are far away or planning to live far away, the world actually becomes bigger than how it seemed before and the reality is that staying closer requires much effort. Technology helps a lot this way. But in the end, it's the way you use technology that matters.

So make that friendly e-mail and tell your friend how you've been or better yet, ask him/her how he/she has been. You're both probably dying to hear from each other. Make that call and tell your special someone you miss him/her even if you've just talked a few hours back because you probably discussed how yesterday was but today's a different day. Compose that text message and reply to your close friends' messages that slipped your mind more than once because you were too busy with other things.

Or you could let go of your cellphones for a while and spend time with the ones around you at the moment: your siblings, your friends nearby, your next-door neighbor, your officemates and your boss who are also human... The list of persons varies depending on how you're living life right now.

The world didn't just grow on its own into a busy place. It's the people trying to be busy most of the time. And it's time for us to lessen that busy-busy-busy mode. As the old line goes... stop for a while to smell the flowers.

In my case, I'll just stop for a while because I'm not so fond of flowers.

Since fear is irrational, I cannot rationally explain why I acquired such feeling towards flowers. But I'm still suggesting that you pause for a while and smell them. They won't bite YOU ;)

As for me, I'd just pause and... gaze at trees because I find them SPECTACULAR.

Some of them were individual seeds scattered in a certain area until they all grew into seedlings, ready to be uprooted and to be moved where life leads them. And then, even if they're all growing bigger roots in different places, somehow their branches still touch one another. And then when circumstances permit it, they'd bear flowers and fruits. Then afterwards, they'd grow old watching their own fruits, their branches still touching branches of other trees. Sometimes their branches get trimmed but then they grow longer again. Sometimes they permanently get moved to other places far from the other trees they grew up with but soon they'd be laughing with the wind, knowing that not so far away the other trees are laughing along with them.