Friends or executives?

I  have been blessed with good set of friends whether be it from school, college or language courses. I have been in touch with my close group of friends all through the years. I am also proud of the fact that some of them are really down to earth and remain the same and never flaunt their success in careers or boast about their achievements in life. Our core behaviour remains the same and we are able to chat about anything and everything without inhibitions.
Perhaps, this behaviour of my close friends also has made me taken them for granted, which I recently realized.  When I meet my friends we just chat about our families, children and general problems we face and hardly discuss the careers. I recently changed my mobile handset and realized a bit late that some of my contact numbers were not transferred from the old phone. I had lost the phone numbers of quite a few friends. But I thought, with google, facebook and other social media that are available its not going to be difficult to trace them. But there was this particular friend who held a high position in a mnc and was not active on social networks. So I had to google her name to find out her contact number. Only then did I realize that she was actually a very busy executive and a very successful woman giving lectures and presenting papers in international conventions. But never once during our meetings has she behaved like one who was so successful. I used to call her anytime I felt like talking to her and she always was there for me. Never did it cross my mind that she could actually be in the midst of a high level meeting or attending a conference in some other part of the world.
It feels great to have such friends who have not allowed success to go to their heads. After this googling experience, I have started valuing such friendships even better than before.

Special child and a special friend

Recently I met one of my college-mates after a long time. As close friends, we were a group of 5 , who had a blast and at the same time were good, obedient students. Then, with our lives taking different routes, we drifted apart. After a long gap of ten years I met one of our group mates who had lost her husband recently and had a mentally-backward child to take care of. She was a bubbly, carefree kind of girl in college. So, when I went to meet her, it was heart wrenching to see her , handling this crisis with aplomb and maturity. Hats off to her! Seeing her, I feel ashamed about how much we complain about our lives. We are bothered about not getting things done on time or our children losing couple of marks in tests or a spouse coming home late . But for this friend, taking care of that child while, at the same earning to run the family and taking care of aging parents (being the only daughter) and an aging mother-in-law (her husband had been the only son) is a great feat indeed. She faces it all with a smile and radiates such positive energy.
Meeting this friend has been an eye-opening experience for me . I feel proud of her, in fact, I feel that hers is a feat that overshadows achievements of so many other successful career women. How many of us could have the courage to continue to live when faced with so many difficulties? I only hope that I can be a person worthy of such a friend.