Gestures.

I was at the airport yesterday to send off an old classmate from my Bukit Indah days. This was the third time this year that I've gone there to see off a friend who would be furthering his or her studies in a foreign country. I'll be going for a fourth time tomorrow.

First of all, let me just say that I'm genuinely happy for all my friends who've been given the opportunity to study overseas, and I sincerely hope they do well. Both my parents studied overseas, as well as numerous other adults that I've had the pleasure of knowing. People always say that studying abroad is a good experience, and I've often imagined what it would be like to do so.

There's something about going to a place that's not your own, or even close to your own, on your own. Every time I've gone to send someone off, I've asked them the same question: "How do you feel?"

Most of the time they're nervous. And that's completely understandable. I think it's just due to fear of the unknown, since they always end up just fine eventually. Maybe if I were to go on to study abroad someday, I'd understand.

Anyway, a thought occurred to me after this most recent trip to the airport. Why do I keep making these trips? I've actually lost count of how many I've made exactly, let alone how many people I've sent off. The first few times were great, but then, after a time, the whole thing just starts to lose its novelty. "Oh, some more friends are going," I'd think. And I'd go to send them off. I mean, why do I even bother?

But then I remember: it's a different person every time. It might be the umpteenth time I go to see someone off, but for the person getting seen off, it's the first time that he or she is leaving the country to go live and study in another one. It's huge for these guys, especially since they won't be coming back for a long, long time. And I guess it means a lot to them if their friends were there to say goodbye. These trips aren't about me - it's about them.

I'm a fan of gestures, and I think sending people off before they embark on the biggest adventure of their lives (so far) is as good a gesture as any. If I happen to be free, have a means of transport, and if the timing is convenient, I don't see why I shouldn't go send off someone I consider to be a friend. At the very least, it's a sign of my appreciation of our relationship, as well as a showing of my support for this latest venture.

With regards to the girl in the picture above, her sending-off was a bit different from any of my previous ones. I've known her for ten years, but throughout those ten years, we've never really been that close, despite being classmates for most of that period. We were on speaking terms, but that's about it. Never really chatted much.

I found out about her flight from one of her status updates on Facebook. It was the night before, so you could say it was pretty last-minute. I commented on it to wish her luck, and then I realized that everyone else commenting was doing the same. Pretty normal, you'd think, but I just felt that at least one person should be asking her when the flight was. In other words, I figured that no one would be going to see her off. Well, no one from school anyway. This girl was the top student from our school - as far as I knew, not even the ones who'd left in Form 4 for SBPs managed to match her SPM results - and no one was going to see her off? Granted, maybe her friends weren't free, but come on.

I got another friend to come along, and the look on her face when she first saw us in that departure hall...well, it was priceless. That look alone made the whole trip worth it.

It was the same look I'd seen so many times over these past few years. And it was this look that now reminds me why I drove to the airport all those times in the first place, and why I will continue to do so while I still can.