If I ask how many of your middle school friends are in regular contact and how many of them visited you or have you visited in the last month? I think the answer will definitely be lower than the friends you made in your university life and in your professional life unless you stopped your studies before entering the higher secondary level as many of my friends stopped their education after 10th grade and started doing jobs, businesses staying in the village. This photo was taken 10 years earlier, in 2013, when most of my classmates were presented for a reunion party as we had completed our school life in 2009, so after four years, we were able to gather around 40 of us. Another reason is that it was a holiday season for Eid-al-Fitr, one of the biggest festivals of the two eids for the Muslim community around the world.
All of us were enjoying our holidays whether we were studying like me when I was a first-year student of a University, doing other jobs in government services, companies, or doing business in the local area or agricultural professions. Our attendance was much higher because of our marital status as we were not married, so there were no issues with some formalities with the law house. As Muslims, we don't drink, actually, but we love music and dance; though I was the organizer and unable to dance, I paid a good accompany to them. At such parties, we arrange the music systems, cook some good food, play some interesting games, and enjoy the whole day gossiping as we can't get time or opportunity to meet many of them. We have collected all of our mobile numbers as, at that time, many of us had smartphones using WhatsApp or Facebook, as we do now.
But most of us are busy and have regular conversations with our colleagues or university friends. Most importantly, working in the same field is like working with family members, though we meet many of them for the first time in our university lives. So, everything goes with our common interest and professional necessity which we call friendship and with the transfer of your job or location, all of the circle will change again in our life. This is our life cycle, and we can not escape from it; the more we grow up, the more we are separated; sadly, it is a true story of our life.
If I talk about our present status, almost all of us have Facebook accounts and smartphones, but rarely do we talk with them. We only talk on some occasions or while we visit our hometown. Apart from this weaker communication, now we have not met many of them for more than 5/6 years! And if we want to arrange to have a get-together, we need to adjust the appearance of some friends living in the Czech Republic, Singapore, China like me, and also some other countries! Besides the different countries, many of us don't get holidays at the exact time when we have our Eids except the Muslim oriented countries. Like I haven't enjoyed my Eid days with my family for more than 5 years, which is really pathetic!
Apart from these visible constraints, we have more issues with our family life. Most of us are now married, and many of us are parents with a lot of responsibilities. We can't have so much free time as we used to enjoy in that time when we were just like free birds, moving here and there without any concerns. Now we need to deal with the issues with our own family as most of our family programs, like anniversary celebrations and marriage ceremonies, are put for this kind of holiday season. Also, we need to take part in such celebrations from the laws house perspective related to our wives. Many of them are also busy with their children's schedules. So, life is so interconnected with so many things that such a get-together seems very problematic, but it could be more enjoyable with the meeting opportunity after a long time of separation.
So, our life is really full of uncertainty, and we always switch everything that we can afford to make our life bigger than the previous. The first thing that we have changed from early civilization is our home, and with the advancement of science and technology, we are going far and far from our roots. Nowadays, changing residency abroad or living abroad for one's whole life is a very common fact. But still, in my village, people are always returning to their roots to spend their festive seasons with their friends and family.
All of us enjoyed the day with a lifetime impact in our memory, and we will never forget the time we spent together. It will be very challenging to have such a get-together in future, but I hope we will meet with all of them together one day. For sure, that day will be more enjoyable than before.
I hope you like my photos of the beauty of winter nature during this winter season in this area, with serene surroundings and crystal clear lake water, mountains, and blue sky. It was an amazing experience to have such a fantastic place like this, with the discovery of natural beauty, to enjoy my Beijing life! If you have any queries, let me know in the comments, and I will try my best to answer them.
Thanks a lot for your time and attention. I will catch up with you at the next one.
Wish you a good day!
