I'm currently tongue tied. I'm sitting at my com, I've a few MSN convos going, but none of it makes sense to me. Only one does. That's Royce there. Sometimes I feel like he's the only person who understands me, or rather the only person whom I can talk to when I'm in the throes of emotional problems. Royce, thanks for being there for me. I appreciate it so much.

I think as we walk down the road that is our life, we'd realise that friends would become an integral part of your life, something you might hold even as dearly as your own family. People will pass by you, people will say hi, say bye, and perhaps your paths might cross again. They might not. But then friends are always there, supporting you, and in all eventualities believing that you'd reciprocate the support.

Truthfully, I'd lament the fact that such friends are hard to come by, and one doesn't usually make more than two or three such friends within a lifetime. Royce is one of them. And really, I'm thankful for his presence, the way he has touched my life the same way I hope I have touched his. One might walk down a lonely road, just as I often like to do. But I've realised that no matter how much I try to move myself away from the crowd, there's an impentratable wall of my own conscience that prevents me from going further.

I feel the responsibility to my friends, to everything I have and hold dear in this world. Looking back, perhaps, I wish I'd been smarter with the way I'd acted, more mature, more worldly-wise and in some sense less anti-social. One can't have everything, so I guess I'm blessed to have someone like Royce close to me.

Thank you, Royce. Friends forever.

Merv.