Not all friends are created equal by: Lumad Aloranon

As an old Japanese saying goes: Long speech makes many mistakes, Short speech makes few mistakes, I will end my speech now, Thank you and good evening. That is the last paragraph of the Valedictory Address I delivered during the night that was my night, April 19th, 1972, at our Commencement Exercises. Graduation Night. After four, some say long, some say short years, someone has finally stood on that stage facing hundreds or so fellow graduates, parents, friends and guests. And that someone was I. I was five months short to being seventeen when I finished high school, and I must have done something right that I already made hundreds of friends, some special, some not so. All these years I have always thought that I have been treating my friends, like equally. But no matter how, there is always that first-among-equals. Fifty years after that night, a bunch of friends and I were in the beach house of a boyhood friend. This gathering of friends, to me, was just one of those we always do. He, having so many friends, when in town, friends see him. Food, plenty of food, drinks, karaoke and plenty of good laugh. After some shots, I thought I heard these lines: As an old Japanese saying goes: Long speech makes many mistakes, Short speech makes few mistakes, I will end my speech now, Thank you and good evening. Yes, I was not imagining hearing it. I was amazed that someone took notice of what I was saying that night fifty years ago. I was pretty sure not a soul remembered that because I for one am having difficulty reciting it again. He was there among the crowd and probably the only one listening. I was touched to the core. Someone like him, very intelligent, coming from a prominent family did have an appreciation to what I said. And even more so when he added, 'What can I say, you made an impression on me'. I hope to God that he did not have enough alcohol to have drowned what I told him how much I appreciate what he has just told me.