The first time I read the statement "Life is too short to hate, when you have so many things to love", it didn't make sense to me.

My life is so wonderful - I'm sure all of yours is as well- but I can't help exclaim it, just like a little kid would if her adamant father finally relented and bought her candy!

And the reason it is so wonderful is because I am now allowed to see the answers, to the questions that were posed some time ago! Well yeah, that statement - "Life is too short to hate, when you have so many things to love" - has come true in my life, quite literally. And now, I understand.

And since I understand, I think it is my duty to explain and make others understand- for the benefit of mankind :D

A dear friend of mine is going away for a couple of years on a work permit to a far away country (yes, Australia is far) next week. This means that I won't be getting to see her for the next couple of years, and catching up would mean Skype calls, telephonic calls and long emails, as against our regular meeting-up-within-ten-minutes-notice which I'm going to miss terribly. However, so much has happened since the last time I met her (I met her last week by the way, my life is very happening that's all), that I have so many things to tell her- about how my life is right now, about my woes which only I find so difficult to deal... Coming to which, everyone else thinks my life is easy! Especially my cousin. She says that my life is so beautifully devoid of problems, that I create my own problems and then derive pleasure in solving them (guilty :P).. Anyway, I digress.

So, I have so many things to tell her - about all the happiness, the sadness and the madness in my life. I am also supremely mad at her for a number of reasons.

And I'm going to meet her ONCE before she leaves - she absolutely has no time to meet more than once. That means only one thing, I can either laugh and tell her my fun stories, or cry and tell her my woes, or shout and tell her why I'm mad at her, or be silent and say nothing. How can I possibly spend the last meet telling her how she hurt me, or cry about my woes? (I'm getting enlightened by the day, aren't I? :P)

So I choose the alternative- I already have forgiven her for hurting me- though she has no idea about it, and I have already forgotten my woes- because that isn't so important, and I know what I'm going to tell her. I'm going to tell her that she has been a wonderful friend to me, and has always been there for me when I needed her, and that life with her is fun. I'm going to tell all the reasons why I'll miss her, and that I wish I can see her soon again. And then I'm not going to drive her to the airport (firstly because I don't think she'll reach in one piece if I drive, secondly because I don't want to know that she has left). I will go back home, and think that she's right there, two roads away, and that she can't come out for quite sometime for whatsoever reasons. I will never once think that she isn't there. Because it's true, she's right there- a phone call away. So what if she's not two roads away?

And thus I learn, that life is too short to hate. People go away sooner than you think, and for reasons you can't even think. Live happy for a farewell day will come, be it because of travel, or because of death. And then no matter how much you want, you can't go back and tell them what you wanted to, so tell them today.. While you can still meet them :)