Undeserving Me: Simply Thankful
I’d like to introduce a dear old friend to you, dear reader. Greg, not his real name, I’ve known him for 35 years. And in all this time, he’s been nothing but amazingly kind to me. And to my family as well. I can think of absolutely nothing to deserve the privilege of his friendship. In fact, I can’t even think of any situation when I have had the opportunity to return the favour. This is a lop-sided friendship. I find myself totally undeserving, and extremely grateful.
A bit of history to provide the context. I first met Greg when I decided to quit the industry and go back to school to earn a PhD. I had felt the urge to become a professor, you see. Besides, fourteen years in the corporate world was getting old for me. Anyway, that’s how I met Greg. He was a year ahead of me in the program, and he volunteered to be my peer mentor, if you will. So we took some courses together, and taught a few courses together. But because our research interests were so different, we never worked on any joint papers.
I moved away after I finished the degree. To a different country, no less. But we stayed in touch. That means, though, we hardly saw each other. Even now, after I have moved back to the same country, we are in different cities. I’d see him maybe three or four times a year.
You know you’re getting on when a friend you’ve known for 35 years is not nearly your oldest friend. Living so far apart doesn’t help. Come to think of it, I don’t really know a great deal about him. What I do know, though, is that he’s been a great friend. And I’m eternally grateful.
I have no idea why he is such a good friend. Certainly, I’ve done nothing for him. Nor is there anything I can actually do for him or help him with. And he had never asked. I guess I just got lucky.
That makes me wonder, if someone has ever felt this way about me. Have I been such a friend to someone else? I doubt it. I think I may be a bit too self-absorbed to be such an unselfish friend. But who knows? Maybe I’ve done so without being aware. That would be nice. I would love it if I were a Greg to someone else. Hope springs eternal.
Thank goodness for the Gregs of this world. I just hope there are more like him out there. And I hope I can be someone else’s Greg as well.
