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…​