I had 3 very meaningful dinners this week which are still fresh in my mind. They were memorable for the various discussions about life and the stages we go through.
I was in Yangon from Tues to Thurs for my part-time financial consultant role with a microfinance company headed by an ex-colleague of mine. He is an Italian who has vast experience traveling the world, having worked in numerous 3rd world countries to help improve their living standards via the development of new financial initiatives.
He (M) arranged the first dinner with a German consultant on Tues evening at a nice Italian restaurant, where we sat outdoors at the beautiful Inya lake in perfect night weather with a full moon shining on us. Like him, our new acquaintance (C) was also a 38-year-old, having spent time traveling the world in a lot of 3rd world countries for work. He shared that he was currently at the crossroad of his life over the last 2 years, having left his stable long-term job to strike out on his own as an enterprising consultant. He was also still recovering from a split up with his girlfriend, moving to Berlin to get away from it all. He always loves kids and was wondering where his life was taking him to now. M was getting married soon and was also wondering about his next phase of married life and hopefully kids thereafter.
Me, being the old fart here at 51, was asked if I had any advice for them. Maybe it was the wine, but I told them to basically embrace life, try to stay happy and then flow with our life journey to see where it brings us. I do sense that there is a fear in both of them that they may be running out of time, that their friends are all settled down with family but yet they are nowhere near that goal yet. We had a very deep and in-depth discussion about life in general. It was one dinner I would remember for a while, that we strangers in life had come together to share our thoughts and aspirations.
The following evening, M invited me to a home cooked dinner with his fiancee and a Catholic priest who was their pre-marriage counselor, as required by their church. I was totally impressed that the priest had spent more than 20 years in Asia as his calling. He was living in a small town that was an hour south of Chiangmai, Thailand for 17 years to service the Lord before leaving for Myanmar a few years ago. Though we did not share much that evening, I had a deep respect for his dedication and what he was doing.
The final dinner happened last night. It was a planned annual gathering of my male university friends from our Business Administration course, the class of 1990. We called ourselves the BizAd uncles. We met in the new officers Temasek club to relive the student days where we had a number of alcohol-induced happy sessions just before the annual exams every Feb to help lighten our stress levels. It was great to have the 9 of us talk about familiar old experiences and laugh over the many crazy things we did during our undergrad days and being amazed that almost 30 years have passed since then.
Cherish our memories, the chance and planned encounters. Learn and embrace life as we only have but one to experience. Never give up on it as there is so much out there to look forward to. Always be hungry, to be appreciative of all of our blessings and never look back with regret.
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