Lately, a single thought has been lingering in my mind:  “Are people changing that much that I haven’t noticed? I feel like I’ve stayed the same as I always have been.”

Last month, I took a trip to Taipei to visit my friend Wei Ni. I haven’t seen him for 3 years when he moved back to Taipei from San Jose, California due to his dad’s deteriorating health. So I figured since I have a bunch of free time, it would be nice to get together since I live in Hong Kong and the flight is only 1.5 hours away.

When I saw him, already I had the impression he was a different person, never mind the looks (I guess staying off American food reeaaaallllly slims you down) but his personality too.

I remembered back in the days when we would go out for drinks, oyster farms (even though i hate oysters), bars, Karaoke, camping etc… He was always there to encourage me to drink up or more. This time though… I was the only encouraging him. Yes life circumstances are different; his dad passed away and he took over his dad’s dental clinic. He seems settle down with a nice girlfriend and living a rather simple and quiet life.

Not that there is anything wrong with that, I’m glad he is happy and found someone to be happy with… its just not the Wei Ni that i remembered… this is Calm Wei Ni and the whole time, I was both happy and thought “Where is the Crazy Wei Ni?”

Change is inevitable as was quoted in the Matrix. I realized that and as I see everyone around me changing, getting married, moving on to other countries, starting a family or opening a new business… I look back at myself and think… “What has changed in me?”

C.S. Lewis once wrote “It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

It seems to me that change is just another natural part of life… part of me doesn’t want to change yet and is comfortable living as I am. Yet I’ve come to realized… I too have changed. Certainly the experiences of living in Hong Kong couple with doing a startup here and affected me. I am more independent, can survive in a foreign place and learned so much about business that it all felt like a long college abroad trip.

It will be interesting to look back years from now, the type of person I was (probably make fun of myself In the process).