In Oman

I'm in Oman right now. I feel a strange mix of emotions. I felt like this the last time I was here. "Bittersweet" would be the right word. It feels really nice to be back here - being with my parents and all. Although I wish my sister was here as well. It would be nice for the whole family to be together again in Oman. I feel really empty sometimes though. All my friends aren't here. Actually, only one of them is here.

I went over some old ICQ conversations today. It made me feel happy, and very depressed at the same time. I used to talk to so many of my friends through ICQ on this very computer.

It was an amazing time; my last two years in high-school. All of us had so much fun. Reading those old ICQ transcripts brought back some old memories... old hopes... old loves... Towards the end, the transcripts got especially poignant. It was the part where we all said good-bye to each other - when we parted ways. I didn't feel it as much then, as I do now.

Those transcripts are a time-capsule. I was looking at a younger "me". Five years younger, to be exact. I don't think I have changed much fundamentally. Perhaps wiser... a lot less naive... and a little cynical... even a little darker perhaps. Five years ago, I was a young lad setting out on the grand adventure known as "college". Now I am a young man setting out on the grand adventure known as "The Real World". Five years ago, my friends and I were just kids. Now most of us are employed. Some of us own houses... and some of us are married.

I wonder where I'll be five years from now... More so, I wonder who I'll be five years from now...