You don't know my name, do you?

It's a shame that we'd been studying in the same course and same school for 4 years and we didn't even talk to each other or know the names of each other. What's wrong with you?

Some of my classmates, whom I call hi-bye friends 4 years a go, are now still hi-bye friends. Maybe I shouldn't call "friends", it's too privilege, "known people" would be a proper term to use. But then again, I don't really know them. I shall just call them "classmates" then.

I was in university in Laos for less than 2 years but I know all my classmates. And I mean "know". I know their names, to say the least. We talked to each other and became very close. Until these days, many of us still keep in touch via letters, emails and online chat.

In Singapore, to be honest, I doubt if I can name 30 people out of my 100-plus classmates. Blame myself? Yeah probably. My friend once told me, " You're not here to make a friend. Just focus on what you're doing..."

Just give you some idea. My friends don't want to go for a gathering organized by the school every Thursday, 1st week of each month. " It won't be fun because people will just hang around with their own clique," said my friends. That's exactly what happened during our school days; people grouped themselves with their own friends. People just didn't mingle. They said 'Hi' and 'Bye' when they couldn't avoid each other at the corridor or at the lift. I remember someone wanted to organize an after-graduated party, but it didn't pull off because only few people were interested.

I'm sure my school mates are nice people, especially Tuesday Group people, of course. I just don't get a chance to get to know many of them. It's a pity.