It was a completely unexpected happenstance that we, my best friend from childhood, her husband and I, enjoyed a beautiful night at Taipei Arena for an “Andrea Bocelli” concert.

When he sang “Falling in loving with you”, I felt that we were back to the starting pointing of our lives again.  The years of separation did not exist.

 Who would believe that from the East coast and the West coast of US continent we would be sitting in the Taipei Arena together and listening to “Andrea Bocelli” sing his heart out, after so many years of living our separate lives?

Life truly is full of unpredictable events.  A series of unforeseen episodes brought us both back to this island at this rainy season to fulfill an event that we had missed with an Andrea Bocelli concert in Vegas more or less a decade ago.  The spontaneous decision of attending the concert only a few hours before the opening had wiped away our years of misunderstanding toward each other.  We were acting like in our youth again.

After the concert, we took a long walk through the seemly familiar but also unfamiliar streets looking for night snacks.  Walking and chatting in high heels was so different than when we rode bicycles, roaming the east side of Taipei late in the night, just because we wanted to have the special kind of snack at a particular street vendor we both liked.  Of course, we would never be able to find the vendor again (Taipei is hardly recognizable now, especially the East side), but many similar fun and happy memories came alive for us during the walk.

Is it because of our age that we start to treasure this or is it because we miss our long ago friendship? Or is it because we won’t be able to find or create the same kind of pure friendship and youth anymore?  My heart was full of tears with the thoughts that we both allowed our pride stand between our friendships and only had very minimum contact all these past years.  The few pictures we had taken in the arena were the only evidence that we were back at the starting point again. 

The wild bus ride we took on that raining day brought us back to familiar feelings toward each other when we were young and ran after the morning bus to school.  Actually, we both, two foreigners, should be commended for having the courage to take a bus ride in Taipei!  It would be so easy to take a taxi instead! But, why miss the fun of it especially without umbrella?

When will we meet again?