Friend Leaving For London

Today, I had lunch with a close friend who's leaving on Sunday to take up a one year diploma course in footwear design at the University of Arts London. We were colleagues for a short while eleven years ago and had kept in touch with each other once in a while.

However, today we could only spend one hour together as she still has a lot of things to settle before she leaves. She had resigned from her job last week and had less than a week to prepare for her trip.

At lunch, she told me now that she is actually leaving, she's having jitteries and unsure whether she has made the right decision to take up the course in terms of money spent (which is a lot) and career. She would have taken up fashion design if money and situation permit. Footwear design is not something that would lead one to a good lasting career in Asia. She's also moving out of her comfort zone because she has never done anything artistic in her career since she had always been working in a corporate office like me.

I told her that even if she sees no career in footwear design in the future, taking up the course would still be beneficial in ways that we may not be aware of at this time. The experience and qualification may still come in handy for other certain careers. Last week, I had bought two bookmarks for her and one of them was coincidentally titled "Trust your heart" with inspirational words about having the courage to do what you want and to follow your heart. When I gave it to her, she noted the coincidence and I can see that my words and the bookmark managed to at least make her a little calmer.

I wish her the best and can't wait to see her again. However, she may opt to remain in London if she manage to get a good job there. Then, I'll be missing another good friend by my side.