If we meet again, I hope you will still remember me.

While listening to music today, I suddenly heard a lyric: “Next year, the stranger will be someone who was once the closest to me.” Suddenly, I felt a pang of sadness, and tears streamed down my face.

I had a fight with a friend a couple of days ago. We were pretty close before, but we turned against each other over some trivial matter.

It’s hard to let go, yet I’m unwilling to give up. Listening to the song, I silently thought about many things.

From childhood to now, I haven’t walked many roads or tasted many salt, but I have still experienced a period of time.

I encountered all sorts of people during this time. Some were close, some were at odds, some we argued with, some we cursed at each other, ranging from being inseparable to being indifferent to each other.

At first, I would feel extremely sad when I argued with my friends. I would try every possible way to make up, and I couldn’t eat or sleep.

As I experienced more over time, I came to terms with it.

A very old but not at all cliché analogy: if we compare a person’s life to a journey, then along the way we will experience scenery, go to many places, and inevitably meet all kinds of people.

Someone will give you directions, someone will share a bus with you, and someone will accidentally step on your foot while walking and say “sorry”;

Someone might sit at the same table with you at mealtimes and eat the same noodles; someone might look up at the same airplane streaking across the sky while walking down the street; someone might use the same cup from the same coffee shop as you.

But the one who will accompany you all the way, through wind and rain, thunder and lightning, snow and hail, will ultimately be by your side. This one person is better left alone than the wrong one.

It’s definitely not true; there’s no room for ambiguity!

The people you meet on the road give you nothing more than a smile or a lesson, something insignificant, something you experience but not enough to leave a lasting impression; they are all trivial in comparison.

I wrote a blog post a couple of days ago, and many friends helped recommend it.

Suddenly, a friend I used to be very close to but don’t keep in touch with much anymore recommended it to me.

When making recommendations, the tone of voice was the same as before.

I rushed over and chatted with her for a bit, but I no longer felt the same joyful feeling as before when we hung out together.

Whether a friend is cherished or not is not determined by time. It is determined by whether they can stand by you through thick and thin, whether they can tolerate and forgive you, tolerate your shortcomings, and forgive your quirks.

Instead of giving up just because you make a small mistake.

Sometimes I really want to tell those kinds of people, “I’m just an ordinary person, with all sorts of flaws and shortcomings. I’m not a god, not a celebrity, not God. If you’re looking for someone who’s dazzling and whose teeth gleam like gold when they smile, turn left. I don’t cater to that kind of person.”

I remember writing a blog post for a friend I had a falling out with. In it, I declared righteously, “I’ve said it before: friends are for stabbing in the back when you’re down, for leaning on when you’re sad, and for seeking pleasure when you’re lost. Why are you being so polite? I’m right here, come on over!”

It was so magnificent that it didn’t even bother adding punctuation marks, but who knew that it would eventually succumb to the erosion of time.

Oh well!

Actually, having the opportunity to get to know someone like this once in a lifetime is precious enough.

Even if we meet again in the future and treat each other coldly, when we think about the past, we might just smile and act like no one else is around.

You see, people are actually quite soft-hearted.

As the article ends, the song concludes—”Next year, the stranger will be someone who was once the closest to me. It’s better than never having met that person at all.”