Motivational Story 01 (Friends during Recession)

This was posted by xtreyier on SgForums on 21 Jan 2009. Reproduced from http://sports.sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/345094 as follows:

Friends are the most important people in one's life, someone whom you can relate to, look up to, and confide to, more so when experiencing bad weathers such as this crisis.

A dry shelter and hot soup from the pouring rain warms the heart.

While everyone is affected by the doom and gloom of the recession, many faced it in varying degrees. Some are least affected, and felt more as an irritation, and some totally overwhelmed and left helpless.

For those of us who can get by, we must never abandon the seemingly helpless. While we may not have sums of money to lend, we can still afford a meal or two, a coffee or two, an ear or two to comfort and encourage.

No fellow Singaporean must be left alone in helplessness. We are a civilised society, with the building blocks being our own family, relatives and friends. This recession was not of our making or our mistake. It came out of the blue like a Tsunami wave rushing towards all, overwhelming many.

We must each encourage one another, never to give up on hope, for the reality is that bad times, like good times, dont last. Today, some may be down, but tomorrow they will rise.

This is the natural course of journey in life. And good friends will make that journey better and more meaningful as life is shared.

I remembered during NS days, one of my collegue was sitting on the parapet of a HDB top floor corridor after booking out of camp at night. I and several friends spent 6 hours into the early morning talking him out of jumping because of a failed relationship over his grad girlfriend who ditched him for a brit foreign talent.

We failed our IPPT test a few hours later as we did not have enough sleep and was sentenced to RT training. The pain was real, but certainly not as painful compared to a friend if lost in a suicide.

There was a time when I was down and out, and abandoned by 'friends' and family. I will always remember the indian mamak who pressed a bun into my shivering hands, the chinese construction supervisor who ordered and paid for a plate of chicken rice to me when he saw me drinking plain water with a bun in a coffeeshop, and the Muslim matron who invited me to her home and had dinner with her family, amongst many who were kind to me.

I have a brain, hands and legs, courage and determination to face up and pay for my errors and knew I would succeed again, and when i did, I repaid those kind people many times over.

As much as others condemn us as kiasu people, at heart, we are kind people. And these people are my fellow citizens - Singaporeans. Flawed, imperfect, whiners, seemingly uncaring, but heart always in the right place.

Therefore, dont give up on hope or giving out hope to others. We all will ride out this recession together, stronger as a society as long as no one is suffer alone or left alone. Friendships are all the more important now, whether you are an 8 year old or 80 year old.