In my younger days, whenever I attended a camp with some new people, a home street address was probably the only means of staying in contact. When we shook hands and say goodbye, there’s this real conviction that you might really never see the person again.
Thankfully, things have changed since then. Working in different countries, I meet new people all the time and whenever the time is up, there’s no hint of when I would ever bump into them. Except that I no longer prefer “goodbye” to bid farewell; “see you later” is a more apt choice.
Online tools makes it easier and easier for us to stay connected. If you have read the previous post, the continuation of the story was that Shamir (my ex-housemate), met up with Pearl (our ex-neighbour in Philadelphia who relocated to Singapore) for dinner. If Pearl finding me on LinkedIn wasn’t serendipitous enough, discovering that Shamir’s workplace was just diagonally across Pearl’s building added more the the list of bizarre coincidences.
My point is, with the new digital age, we never really have to say goodbye. If a relationship is valuable, there’s definitely opportunity to reconnect – somehow. After all, as with all good friends, you know it’s a matter of time before you say “Hello” again.
