All well for the company, I suppose. (But I notice more common coffee breaks these days... But I digress...) Yet I had an experience some time ago that taught me, the hard way, to take advantage of time given me to see friends and do what I want.

Rewind to 1996. I was a graduate student, biochemistry, in an environment where working 6-7 days a week was the norm, and you got yelled at by higher powers if you didn't. So, I followed the same program, working such schedules. I'd resurface to see friends once a month or so, if even that. I just wanted to get my degree.

That attitude changed in a single day. One weekend, I was in my hometown area (not too far from my school) and ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a while. Rather than her usual energy, her face was pale and sunken. She proceeded to tell me that a good mutual friend of ours had been killed in a car accident the day before.

Needless to say, my life was never the same. This was the first experience I'd had with a death of someone relatively close, so it hit me hard. In fact, I was so emotionally overcome at the time that for a year afterward, I could not listen to the album I had playing in my car at that time without crying, even though there is nothing particularly sad about that album (Images and Words by DreamTheater). I never thought I'd overcome the sadness associated with that music, but I got over it, eventually.

At the time, the guilt set in. I hadn't seen this particular friend for about two months, because I "had to work." I then made a vow to see friends as frequently as possible, and as soon as possible.

So, understandably, I cringe when friends tell me that we need to wait a month to see each other, due to work schedules. There's a brief moment that I pause, thinking, "Will I ever see this person again?"

If I ran the world, work would be a much lower priority than family and friends... but that day will never come.

28June2002 bey