When Old Friends Refuse to Grow Up: A Reunion Over Coffee in Thimphu

Funny thing, my calendar says otherwise but my heart still feels like it is 2021. And these days three
fourths of every reunion among friends our age is all about the same three things: MA, wife or husband, and children. 

And me, I am 99.9% clueless on the topic, a fish out of water, because I have no knowledge on either. I sometimes feel there should be a welfare department for people like us, so buried neck deep in our daily notesheets and follow up emails that time just slips through our fingers like sand.

I am the only oldie of the EDO batch, except for the MO plus suffix, who still introduces himself with the same old designation, sticking out like a sore thumb. 

The rest are all Planning Officers now. We are 6 to 7 years in the service, and honestly we still cannot believe ourselves that the system has not shown us the door yet. 

We were senior, junior, and mid colleagues in the Dzongkhags, all in the same boat. Three of us moved to different departments in Thimphu, except Echin. But she went and returned with an MA in Economics, while the rest of us are still figuring out how to come out of our comfort zone and pursue it. 

While we celebrate Dechen's return to the country, the common feeling that sits in us is a feeling of youngness, like greenhorns who just entered the job market for the first time. We talked about change, but only the personal kind, the journey till today. 

Still, today's welcome reunion is the energy booster that lit a fire under us to keep moving forward and do something great in life.

Trashi delek Echin, and welcome back to Bhutan. Thank you Jigme and Yeshy for catching up. 

I know how Thimphu is about making a point to sit for a cup of coffee, harder to pin down than a cat on a hot tin roof, unless of course we are meeting a mistress. Haha.