If tomorrow never comes.

It's a fact of life - we begin to cherish things much more only when we lose them.

When things are good, it's part of our nature to only demand more, often to the point where we become frustrated with our own lives, forgetting to count the many, many blessings we have.

I said goodbye for the last time to a dear friend last Tuesday. He would be 20 this year. His name was Andrew Yap.

Andrew was working out in the gym one fine day and he had a fall, a bad fall from a chin-up bar. He hit his head bad on the floor and he passed out. The doctors did all they could to save him, and we prayed for a miracle, and we got one. Just that it wasn't exactly the one we all asked for.

Andrew Yap never did wake up, but the friends he had around him his miracle - no one can deny that someone who could make friends from far corner of the world fly back just to be with him and shave their heads bald so that they could accompany him in his baldness when he wakes up is someone magical indeed.

Attending his memorial service and listening to the eulogies that painted a picture of a life that touched so many others, reminded me of a speech I heard some time ago that Abel gave when it was his time to leave DJ.

He said that in life, people come and go. Yes, people will come into your life but as close as they are to you, the day will come when they will have to leave. It hurts to think about it, but like it or not, we're but tiny mortals in the face of fate. Anything can happen and in the end, we all have to leave.

He went on to say that the best we can do is to really cherish the time we spend with the people we love.

That opened my eyes, the stark realization that I have come to take the people I really care about for granted, and I always want the people I love to know that I really, really love them.

Only when you realize that fate can suddenly tear the people you love away from you at any given time, all the little things fall away. Petty arguments, minor disagreements, and even major slip-ups all fall away when you realize that your days with your loved ones truly are numbered.

What matters in life really isn't that prestigious degree, that giant paycheck or that monstrous bungalow, it's love.

As I look through my posts on Hamlet's Hero, I realized that my posts are mostly center about a common theme - love. Love for the people around me, my love for life and my love for my country. I always want to do my best to show the people around me that I truly care for them.

Andrew Yap, thank you for bringing us all together and reminding us of just how important love is. Take care where you are, my friend.