“Go and make new friends”… pretty much the most common advice people offered when I first arrived in this foreign land. Maybe it’s a thing with age, but my principle is that making friends ought not to be such a specific intent. Meaning, I don’t think one should go around with the clear objective in mind to make new friends’. The world has a term for that, it’s called ‘networking’, in which people you meet and become part of your ‘network’. Of course, friends are within your network too… but you know what I mean…
I prefer when friendships are forged through a natural flow circumstances.
No doubt, I have made a small group of friends through the social activities I joined here, and a specific one who was introduced by a friend back home, where this new friend was graciously helping me to scout for jobs. However, I find myself making friends in a rather unique circumstance, I made quite a number of friends… in the gaming world, 2 games to be exact.
The first is unique in its own special way. The game is primarily designed based on a heavy influence of eastern culture. Naturally, I expected this game to attract more Asian centric players. To my surprise, a majority of the players I interacted with are from the Americas (US & Canada), with a few in Australia. Nothing bonds people together more than a common foe, and the game provided that. Through a natural flow of events where a common foe appeared, a group of us became friends and I enjoy the camaraderie.
Through this group of friends, my horizon and perspective of America and (to a certain extent), the American ways of life changed quite a bit. It’s always fascinating to find out first hand what people think, rather than hearing it from the mainstream media.
A more specific perspective that comes to mind is this impression I have on bikers. The decades of mental programming from TV have left a rather scary impression on bikers in the US. Alas, I made friend with a funny and friendly gentleman who loves his Harley, bikes around, plays the guitar and hates winter to the gut.
I wonder… does all of them has a gun at home? Maybe I should ask them next…
The second game is a story of pure nostalgia. It is a legend of a game that was developed more than a decade ago, which offers a platform for players to connect and pitch their skills against each other. To my surprise, the “friends list” that was built almost a decade ago was still intact. And the year that was burdened with lockdowns means players of old all started to re-emerge from their battle hibernation.
The “clan” that I was with, while not as active as before, still has some pretty active players and a handful of us have become good buddies. The beauty of technology offers us the opportunity to connect in the virtual world and we talked about a lot of thins under the sun, with good banters. Co-incidentally, one of them literally stays not too far from where I am now, talk about “going out and makin friends”! We might just meet for a meal one day.
Friends, this term has brought about a multitude of perspectives to me in the last few years. The meaning of friendship has gone through a considerable metamorphosis of late. As such, having this new group of people to share laughs, banters and “going after a common foe”, is quite the needed fresh breath of sanity.
Here’s to the new friends… you know who you are… cheers…
P/S:- Yeah, the pic is rather random, nice though… :)
