You've Got A Friend

//You've Got A Friend//

When you're down and troubled
And you need some loving care
And nothing, nothing is going right
Close your eyes and think of me
And soon I will be there
To brighten up even your darkest night
- Carole King (You've Got A Friend)

Some time ago, a friend of mine was complaining to me about his class, how he don't feel close to his class at all, how he don't have much close friends in the class and so on...and while chatting with him, I came up with a list of "Types Of Friends We Have", which actually translates to "Types of Friends I Have" since different people have different ways when it comes to interpersonal relationships...

I was actually trying to console him by telling him that it's impossible to be close to all your friends, it depends on the chemistry and whether the 2 of you click...

Type 1: "Hi-Bye" Friend
A better word would be acquaintance. These are the people whom you will wave or smile at them when you see them when you're in better mood, and will pretend not seeing them when you're in a bad mood. People falling under this category are mainly ex-classmates that you didn't talk more than 10 sentence with before, and your friends' friends whom you know exists, but hardly talks.

Type 2: "Big-group" Friend
These are the people who you normally hang out with only if it's a big group thing. In the big group, you usually don't speak more than 10 sentence with him each time. If you happen to sit opposite him during lunch/dinner outings, you will tend to talk to people on his left or right more than to him. When you do talk to him, topics such as "How's the food?", "Have you done your tutorial?", "What do you think of this tutor?", etc are the usual topics, and one word or short answers are to be expected. If somehow you end up on the same bus as him on the way home, the awkward silence may just kill both of you.

Type 3: "Something-in-common" Friend
These people are similar to type 2, not very close, BUT difference is with type 2, you talked about weather, with this type of people, you talked about the something in common between the two of you, for eg two of you went for same camp/attachment/course or both of you happen to like this show or something. The conversation tends to last longer, with longer replies, and when one topic fails, another would come up. If somehow you end up on the same bus as him on the way home, you would probably die of killing too much brain cells to think of topics to talk about, when you exhausted the list of topics you have. (but for me, I won't even attempt most of the time)

Type 4: "Online" Friend
This won't apply to a lot people I guess, but these are the people that you will tend to chat a lot online, but will have nothing to chat about face-to-face. This kind of thing usually happens when both parties are reserved and quiet and have difficulty expressing himself.

Type 5: "Yo Brother" Friend
These are the people you will go "Hey dude!" when you see him in school, and the 2 of you can basically talk crap with each other the whole day, but the things you talked about as I mentioned are purely crap, all superficial talk, never will you talk about person stuff...and once school holiday starts or once graduated, he will be very very fast off your radar.

Type 6: "Activity" Friend
People whom you will go out and do stuff with, like KBox, Mahjong, play sports, etc (since these stuff are not everyone's cup of tea). Other than going out and doing stuff with them, personal stuff are seldom talked about.

Type 7: "Close" Friend
This is a tricky one. If he shows characteristics from type 3 to type 6, he may very well be your clsoe friend. But close friends are the people you will never have awkward silence with (cause the silence just wouldn't feel awkward). Close friends are the people you will not mind doing stupid stuff with. (but this vary, some people are juz so thick skin that they don't mind doing stupid things in front of everyone). Close friends are people are the first person you think of when you want to rant at something. Close friends are people who will definitely be there when you desperately needs help. Close friends are people whom you hope to see their greeting sms on birthdays, but won't feel mad if they forgot to send you one. And for me, close friends are the people that I dare to say no to. Let's say someone ask me to go out, and I don't want to, I would squirm and find all sorts of excuses (cause that's just me), but for close friends, I could just say no I don't want to.

On a totally random note, I realised for me, good things come in 4.

I give up, there are just so many types of people, so many types of friends, and all these overlaps. I mean there are people I know now, that I may be quite close too, talked about all sorts of stuff, but don't expect to keep in contact after graduation. There are people I don't talk to as much, but expects to keep in touch in years to come.

Anyway, since I'm on this topic, let me talk about 2 other related stuff, class chalet, and st john nat competition.

Class chalet on Mon to Tue, turnout was, how can I describe it? sad? bad? (funny how both ends with ad) It feels terribly awful when 5 of us were sitting in the foodcourt having dinner and another class from HC of around 20 people walks in to have dinner too.

The chalet was so cheap and it's such a great deal, but the number of people that turned up are fewer than I can count with my fingers. Wheras for the other class, what they EACH have to pay for 3d2n is more than what everlyn paid in TOTAL for the 5d4n, yet so many people turned up.

I guess I just have to convince myself that many in the class take Chinese. And that it's very last minute thing, so they all have fantastic plans for post-blocks activities already.

I'm not pissed or mad or anything by the way, if you think I am, from reading the above paragraphs. I just feel that it's very wasted. Nevermind, it's not like we are going to have a class outing or chalet anytime soon anyway. I guess I should just rely on having a few type 7 friends rather than having a whole bunch of type 2 and 3 friends. I have more fun that way.

St John nat comp, it's tomorrow! I'm really excited for them, hope they do well. Meng told me that around 15 people from the squad are going (out of 20 left in Singapore). I just feel a sense of happiness. Lol, don't ask me why. I think the fact that we all still care about St John makes me happy. Maybe we don't really care, but we bother to go down and show some support for the juniors at the very least. And it's not like only the comp team members in the squad care, those who weren't in comp team last time are going down too, as I quote from minghao's nic "TCHS SJAB for DOUBLE CHAMP"...well...a bit impossible, but as long as they tried, I'm happy.

Damn tkd grading for falling on the same day.

Oh, and I know the name of the taiwan student I'm hosting! Kendall You Zhi Qun. He's skinny! 28 inch waist.