Learning is an imperative part of life. And it never ceases. You learn about friendship, love and sometimes about life in general. You learn from various avenues. Sometimes from friends, parents and sometimes from yourself and sometimes even from absolute strangers.
I once learnt something about relationships from a stranger in a very subtle, implicit way. Cut to a few years, when I was still in college, one of close friend's b'day was due. So I went to a gift shop along with a few other friends to get a present. We chose something and handed over the gift to the shopkeeper to wrap it. The lady shopkeeper came over to us with a few wrapping papers asking us to choose one. The friends that had come along were looking at the covers and deliberating which one to choose. Looking at their confused faces, I told them "just choose some paper; it’s just for S anyways". The lady shopkeeper who heard this quipped "That's the mistake we often make" with a soft smile on her face. I looked at her blankly and went out. I didn't read much into it as it didn't make much sense to me then.
Later, I realized the meaning in the words of that lady. We often take people who are very close to us for granted thinking that they would understand. We fail to express our feelings thinking that they know how we feel about them. We fail to appreciate their good gestures to us thinking that it is expected from them.
That's the mistake we all often make. It’s very important to express our feelings with our close ones from time to time and at any given opportunity, because sometimes it’s just too late and we end up losing them.
As Jack Nicholson says in the movie, 'About Schmidt': Learn to appreciate what you have while you still have it.
