Seeing People Struggle Or Suffer Sucks

At some point this weekend, I was going to blog about how "Basketball Doesn't Define Me".  I may still get to this topic eventually but I am going to talk about something else tonight.

Last week, I blogged about a friend of mine being in the hospital.  Today, three friends and I decided to make another visit to the hospital.   One friend was there an hour and a half ahead of me.  After I arrived, the other two people arrived about 15 minutes afterward.

The good news is our hospitalized friend seemed improved.  As like last time, she was very mentally sharp.  However, she still had a breathing apparatus so speaking was a bit forced.  Overall, she seemed to be in decent spirits.  I'm sure having three people visit was a positive as well.

At some point during the visit, we had a few hospital staff flow through including the attending physician.  The physician was a nice gentleman and greeted us and our friend.  The physician stated that he was happy that our friend had made a lot of improvements in the past few weeks.

However, the physician noted that there were still some things our friend needed to do to get better.  Maybe the thought of the work that lay ahead was daunting and frustrating and our friend started to cry.      I don't know how my other friends were reacting but it was tough to see this.  Even though I was the only guy, I was tempted to cry.

Our friend eventually did settle down and we all chatted for a while longer.  Eventually, we all had to leave and our friend was crying once again.  We all reassured our friend that we would be back.

In the past six months or so, I've learned that I hate seeing people suffer.  From friends to family, I've done my best to help people's struggles.   Though I am reluctant to talk about it publicly, the fact is my mom has had struggles with memory in the past year.  I've taken on a lot of responsibility to try to help her out.

There is another friend of mine that I hang out with every now and then and talk with frequently.  The friend accidentally hurt themselves a few months ago which derailed some of our plans.  I know they were frustrated so I visited the friend once and spent a lot of time talking on the phone.   My friend did the same for me a few years ago so this was not a problem for us.

Unfortunately, there's a not a lot I can do for my hospitalized friend right now except to visit.  My friends and I have bounced some ideas around to get some gifts but not sure if they are practical at this point.

The main point is that seeing people struggle or suffer is not fun.  However, if there is a lesson here, it is that I need to appreciate what I have AND also help others who may not be as fortunate.

Reunion Weekend (or so it felt like it was.......)

This weekend was fairly quiet.  The youth volleyball season started and I put in some work over four youth games.   I played my usual Saturday pick up basketball with my friends and did some shopping both on Saturday and Sunday.   Got a chance to watch plenty of baseball and football as well!

The trend of this weekend was talking to people that I hadn't seen or talked to in a while.  After playing basketball Saturday, I went to the mall to look at a few things.  I had a gift card for a local sports store so I stopped by to see if there was anything I wanted to buy.  It was at the sports store where a former high school classmate was there with his family.  He actually saw me first and we chatted for a while.  Turns out this former classmate lives in a complex where one of my close friends live.  What a small world!

After chatting with the classmate, I wandered around the store a bit longer.  As I prepared to leave the store, I ran into young lady I knew.  The young lady, along with her two older brothers, had gone to the same grammar school I did.  I had coached the young lady's oldest brother in basketball and watched both the other brother and her play during their time at the grammar school.   Even though we were connected on Facebook, it had been years since I had seen her.  We chatted for a little while and then we went on our way.

Then today, out of the blue, I received an email a bit of out of the blue from a married lady friend in Canada.  This friend and I have a very interesting history.   We actually "met virtually" when I was in college in the 1990s.  We had emailed, chatted online and even sent some letters / photos.  However, after I graduated from college, we lost touch.   Several years ago (according my old emails, it was 2008),  this friend crossed my mind.  I still had an email address for her and decided to email her.  Fortunately, she was still using the email address and we corresponded a few times

From my old emails that I have, after our talk in 2008, we didn't talk again until 2009.   Of course, my friend decided to email me today.  We exchanged a couple of emails today and I made sure I got her IM and phone number for future communication..   I feel blessed that we have managed to stay in touch despite the geographical distance between us.   I'm quite thankful this friend decided to reach back out as I had done a poor job in doing so.  However, like anything in life, you go through peaks and valleys.  Perhaps today was a sign that it's time to renew this old friendship that I had.  I'm a believer in having MORE friends than less.

In any case, the weekend wasn't the most exciting in terms of activity but connecting with people was a blast.  Thanks to all the old friends I ran into this weekend.

Appreciating My Friends

I won't elaborate too much right now but I had a rough week last week.  A few of my friends know what happened to me but I don't feel ready to share with the public quite yet.  I'm still trying to figure things out on my end as well.

However, I do feel I owe a shout out to a few of my friends who know they are.  These friends listened me to talk about my issue, offered suggestions and were there for me when I needed reassurance.