Keeping In Touch=Hard. Add Selfishness? Harder

I am not particularly fond of gatherings usually. Especially large ones with people I barely know, people who couldn't care less whether I could go or not, whether I am there or not, people who treat my presence with one and only point: to make up the numbers.

I have rarely attended CHC gatherings. Even when I do, they are small, private friends outings, five people max. (not really gatherings at all) Not class, nor inter-class. Definitely not large. And even the small ones are few and far between. I don't know about other classes, but there were always cliques in my class at CHC. 40 people, and we were already divided into a billion separate groups. The only time of any apparent unit is in a classroom, period. Otherwise, nothing.

Inter-class outings/gatherings were (still are) more common then. You know. Popular people go out with popular ones, nerds hang out with nerds from other classes. One class? Oh, not so close together. And anyway, nobody would plan. It is a bit sad, I guess. I mean, there are primary school gatherings, inter-class gatherings, friends gatherings, and no one would plan for a class after high school days are over.

True, high school days are the only days all of us are free to be together for more than 6 hours. After graduating, people would start working, furthering studies, moving away, and generally giving many reasons why he or she would not be able to attend this gathering, so sorry. But the point is that no one wants to take the initiative to plan a gathering together.

This also happened to my primary school friends. We still keep in touch on Facebook, occasionally texting, but that's it. At first some of them were excited to plan gatherings. But after more and more people lost touch and became unavailable, they just gave up. Very sad.

And so SHHS friends broke my record by planning gatherings (successfully) every few weeks. Besides friends outings (which I couldn't even count on one hand), there are also class gatherings. They were already plentiful during high school days, and even more so after that. It is quite some feeling. I suppose this could be credited to all of us living around the same place. One house to the other doesn't take more than 15minutes the most. Best of all, no traffic jams. :D

But, sometimes, there are some uncooperative people in class. There are always some. Maybe they have their own ideas and thoughts. But this is generally what happens:
Someone started planning a gathering, and went on to ask a few classmates. The other classmates got mad because they weren't invited, because the planner thought they weren't free, working or something. Ended up the planner got stabbed behind the back by those uninvited classmates. So during the next planning, the planner asked everyone. And also asked everyone to reply, even if unable to attend. Fair right?

Here's the problem. Some of them didn't give a reply, even though they saw the message. This made things extremely difficult for the ones planning, because they wouldn't be able to know the head count, and they also would be unable to know if the message was sent across.

Yes, selfish people are always present.

And they don't only come in one type. Here's another situation:
The planner took everything into consideration and listed down a time, date and place that just about suit as many people as possible. Unfortunately, some people felt it was too easy for the planner, and asked "why not so-and-so date instead?" And demanded that the planners plan again, based on their whims and fancies. But, here's the catch. When asked to plan it instead, they insisted that it was only an idea, and they didn't want to take any responsibility for anything.

Don't get angry just yet. They can't help themselves. They have chronic selfishness, you see.

I'm not talking about anyone in particular. I don't even know who I am talking about, I honestly swear. (and I don't swear when I lie, it's sort of superstitious for me, like I'm REALLY gonna get hit by lightning if I swear while lying.)

For those who read this and feel that I'm talking about you, or it sounds like you, or it's one of your admitted weaknesses, please. Keeping in touch is hard enough. Planning a gathering, even getting the idea of doing it, takes a lot of courage and time and energy. As well as a lot of sincere friendship. Not many people are lucky to be invited to gatherings on a forthnightly basis. So if you get an invitation to a gathering, have the heart to reply. It would make things a lot easier for the planners, and they love YOU enough to invite you.

Oh, and don't make unnecessary demands. If you really want a certain time/date/place, it's your responsibility to inform everybody again of the new changes and handle the gathering from there. It's your idea, your choice, and hence your responsibility. Please don't run away and leave the mess to others. It's rude, childish and may I say, absolutely selfish.

And no back-stabbing. We are friends, after all. Say it to my face, if you dare. =)
Cheers!