A Friendship Ends Before It Gets Boring

Charles Schulz’s Charlie Brown waves goodbye in ‘A Boy Named Charlie Brown,’ released in 1969. APA/Newscom

I lost a friend. Our paths crossed when he joined our team as a contractor to help our company migrate to the Windows platform. Our team leader tried to make him a permanent employee, but due to budget restrictions, he wasn’t able to do it. Last month, his contract ended. I’ll definitely miss him.

He came to the U.S. from China to study. After completing his graduate studies, he chose to stay. I don’t blame him as I’m an immigrant myself. The opportunities here are much better.

He’s a very good technician and nice to work with. Unlike other technicians, he freely shares his knowledge. He doesn’t hesitate to help you debug your code if you ask for it.

He has been my lunch buddy for the last 14 months. And what interesting conversations we’ve had. For one, he is a Christian, albeit not a practicing one. He believes and knows the bible very well. I’m what you call a heathen. For another, he has given me some good advice about life in general.

Asked what he’s going to do, he said, if he can’t find another contract, he’ll take a long vacation in China where he and his wife bought a condo close to the beach in one of the islands there.

Sometimes it’s better when a friendship ends before it gets boring.

With a handshake and a hug, we said our goodbye.