Today, we met up with an old high school friend for lunch in the Jordan area of Kowloon. We overlapped in a few classes in high school and went swimming together often to prepare for our school’s swim test requirement, but after high school, we saw each other only twice — once for lunch after our first semester of college, and once again a year and a half after college graduation. When I look back at why I never really made a huge effort to keep in touch, I realize that although we liked a lot of the same things, our chats never really went beyond the surface. We didn’t really have any of the same friends that would force us to see each other; the one remotely mutual friend was an emotional roller coaster who is the only person who has ever cut me off. So it didn’t feel like I was really losing anything big.

When I saw her today, I immediately noticed that her voice had deepened, and she was far more outgoing and talkative than I remembered. Since we last saw each other, it’s been six years, and during that time, she had moved to Hong Kong for work, quit that job and taken a couple others before finally quitting and founding her own startup with a friend based in Hong Kong. Given her business and work needs, it makes sense that she would be more outgoing and confident now. It was refreshing to meet an old friend who was clearly really happy with her life now and motivated and confident about her future.