“How are you doing these days?” his voice in the phone sounded so far away. He was one of my old classmates in the university.
“Not bad, everything goes as well as it could be. How about you?” I asked warmly. We were once very close friends. I know he was a man of great ambitions when he was young.
“Me? Couldn’t be better, and couldn’t be worse……” I heard a tired voice muttering sleepily.
“Hi, buddy, what’s up? Anything wrong?” I was really concerned. And I believed it showed in my voice. So he answered quickly, “No, no, don’t worry. We are quite well. I just feel sort of lost. I had a long talk with our classmate Jerry the other day, he told me lots of latest information about our old friends…”
“Really? Do tell me about them, I am sort of isolated here…………” I said eagerly.
“Well, you remember Ben? He is studying for a doctor’s degree in Beijing now; And Charles? He earns good money now, running his own business, driving his own Benz, a real millionaire.”
“ How great! Well, they do have great potential, don’t they?”
“And Ellen is accompanying her husband in New Zealand to study for a master’s degree.”
“Ellen? Yeah, I remember she once told me of her dream of going abroad. It’s nice that her dream finally came true.”
“But how about me? What have I done all these years? Sometimes I feel I live like a machine, just eating, sleeping, going to work, getting off work, sending my son to his kindergarten, picking him up when the school is over …… every day is just the same, I made no outstanding academic achievement, still a bachelor’s degree now. I made no big money, I can not provide my family with a private car; I am not a top leader in my company even after almost ten years of working here ……. I believe I am a failure compared to them. I once dreamed so much and so big in my school days, you know. I feel so lost and down …… “
Words failed me at that moment. In my eyes , he himself was one of the successful people. He fared quite well these years, we could say. A nice and beautiful wife who was also his university sweetheart and one of our classmates, a smart and handsome son, a decent job with decent income. And he was climbing higher in his company’s ladder, a department manager now.
Our talk fell into a short silence. His words triggered my own train of thoughts.
We all know life is so limited, then why can we still feel bored as my friend was feeling even with so limited a life? I believe Passion is the word. But where does passion come from? It comes from fresh and exciting experiences. If we try to feel, there is something new in our life and work every day. Everyone is living a different life and there are unique and exciting moments all the time. The key is to live them, to feel them, and to share them with your beloved ones. Don’t compare. Comparing with others is like a poison that destroys our happiness and our sense of achievement. Each person is just like one of the leaves in the tree, and there are no two leaves totally the same. When we compare ourselves with others, we see more of their success and less of ours. We feel displeased, and dissatisfied, we tried to follow. And when we are trying so hard to follow the others and only end in second best, envy follows, and that kills even more happiness in our life. At last, in the course of following all the other successful people here and there, we simply forget where we wanted to go …….
“Hi, you still there? “ his weary voice came again from the receiver. I cleared my throat.
“Yes, sure, buddy. ” I answered reassuringly. “Remember you once told me you wanted to work in the field of foreign trade? Remember you once wanted so much the woman who is your dear wife now? Remember you once told me you wanted me to be your best chum? Am I not here listening to you?”
“Yes, I am lucky to get you to talk to. ” said my friend.
“You are doing extraordinarily well, my friend, realizing one after another your dreams in your career, in your life. Just remember where you wanted to go and where you are going, and hold fast to your own dreams, your life will be just as wonderful as all those you admired.”I said to the reciever.
From the other end of the line, I could almost hear a smile spreading on my friend's face.
