My World, Delivered…

Happy Bastille Day!

Congratulations, Bryan and Sarah! 

Today, I went to their wedding. It was excellent. The wedding was at Christ Episcopal Church in Alameda:

The outside looks good, but on the inside is even more impressive. The ceiling was very high and gave this spacious grandeur feeling to visitors inside. The wedding service was short and sweet. Pastor Ed gave the message from Ephesians 5:22-33. It’s been such a long time since I’ve heard him give a message. Brings nostalgic memories hehe…

Afterwards, we went to the reception at HS Lordships in the Berkeley Marina. It was very nice. Some of us had prime rib, while others had salmon. The many skits and slide shows were very good. I am impressed by the effort many people put into this wedding.

Later on, our peers went to Puddingstone (Richard Yen’s house in Alameda) to hang out. It was so nostalgic for me. Today, I basically got to see so many people back at Gracepoint, people with whom I spent about 5 years of my life. I got to see Ray for the first time in about 3 years. He used to be my closest class peer ever since we met Freshman year at Berkeley. We used to share nearly everything, all our struggles, our hopes and dreams. However, as time passed, our lives got busier. He moved to Washington DC for law school, and we lost touch. I subsequently left Gracepoint, and all the relationships that I had were abruptly ended. How do people keep relationships alive? And when, say, a peer gets married, does the nature of that relationship change? Seeing all my peers and some leaders again really brought back many memories for me, and it is very sad for me that I am not able to continue those relationships. Even if I could go back to Gracepoint, everyone is in different places. Maybe it was this disillusionment of fleeting relationships that made me leave in the first place (among other things). Well, not all is lost, though. I am now keeping in touch with Jason and Eric again, two of my peers who’ve moved down to Bridgeway Church. Also, Ray promised to meet up after his BAR exam, and Jason Tarn said he’d do lunch/dinner with me sometimes. I do hope that we will be able to maintain our relationships in the future.

Perhaps today was a wake-up call for me. Over the past few years, I’ve been so focused on building material wealth, making sure that all my debt is in order and that there’s a future plan to amass more wealth. I never wanted to be filthy rich, but I wanted to be rich enough to not have to care about money, to be able to live a comfortable life. But maybe true wealth isn’t how much money you have in the bank, but how many true friends and rich relationships you have in your life…