Rejoice or Recoil

I was busy ‘attending’ to my writing (was actually thinking hard of a particular meaning of a word at the time), when suddenly I sensed someone walking towards to where I was sitting, I was in Starbucks cafe. When that person was finally in front of me, I looked up and this guy tilted his head down a bit to my eye level (I was sitting on a low sofa) and he candidly asked in Hokkien – ‘Can you recognise me?’. I could not but he seemed rather familiar though.

Then he continued – ‘Form Six – Han Chiang High School, remember? I was with this group of friends......’. He mentioned a few names that I know. Then, instantly I recalled – he was my ex-classmate of 2 years when we were studying in Form Six! And boy, did he really changed – his appearance but more obvious, was his confidence level. I remembered he was always being teased during school for his small dark skinny stature and his looks and he was conscious of it.

We were in the same clique of friends, all 12 of us - half dozen are girls, the other half boys (one guy unfortunately passed away in a road accident one year after graduation). During school holidays, we would organise apartment stays, BBQs, trips – one was Genting Highlands, etc. But surprisingly, I was never close to any one of them – I just wanted to be in a group, you know, to feel belong for identity purposes – it’s the teenager phase thing then. This was many, many years back – how many? Sigh....double digit number of years.

After we reminisced and asking about how everyone’s doing... we wished each other the best of luck and he went off. I happily continued with my writing while thinking that it was nice to know and see an old acquaintance doing well. But then, while half way reflecting, it suddenly dawned on me that – how come he changed so much for the better (appearance wise) until I need to take a second guess while he had spotted and recognised me so easily. And that was how this debate got started.

Question is – should I make myself happy by believing I have not aged that much at all, that’s why he can still recognise me (+) OR poor me, I actually had not evolved at all (metamorphosis = nil). You know, as they say, still stuck in the rut of the past, and that’s why he could still recognise me :(

So, which is the correct version? Gosh, this is indeed aggravating....