I’ll be returning home for summer in approximately three months. Singapore itself won’t have changed significantly; it will only have been nine months since I left. I don’t think my family will have changed much either.

But my friends might have changed. In these nine months, how have our relationships evolved? Some could possibly have improved; some have lapsed into utter silence. Others could have changed beyond recognition; changed into something which I won’t really want to believe. Not monstrous, just different. When silence inevitably envelopes a conversation, you will know that time has left a gaping vacuum in the relationship; time has split people apart and also brought people together. After having traversed the shores of the world, how does walking in Singapore feel like? I don’t know, and I don’t know what to expect either.

Friendships are like bridges; building and maintaining a long-lasting friendship requires effort from both sides. Sometimes, in the wake of desertion and desolation, in the face of new potential friends, it might be tempting to let go of old and existing friendships. It might seem like a daunting task to protect and grow these friendships, especially when distance — physical or emotional — is concerned. And indeed, some friendships end up like this, as mere rubble in the dusty entrails of time and history. Life continues.

But isn’t it such a waste for friendships to end up like this? Is friendship really that rivalrous, in the economics sense? Does being closer with someone necessarily dictate that one must drift away from someone else? Is friendship scarce? What does friendship mean in the long run? I don’t know the answers to these questions. Perhaps time will tell; the time that puts a teardrop in the eyes of the knowing.