another one to go

when our friend told us that she will be leaving PAL soon, we all got excited and happy for her. this will mean a new, and hopefully better, career for her. but it also saddens me in a way. she is the 4th person from our barkada to leave just within this year. first it was me. then lloyd. then kuya andy. now its chelle.

i thought of only now that we have not been together for so long. except for chelle and i who were batchmates (2001) and lloyd which joined the company at 2003, they all came in on the same year (2004). but a great bond of friendship was created. thanks to our 'common friend' who put us together (though in the end, she left us for some reason.Ü). we've been together every single day. we've eaten breakfast, lunch and merienda together. we've also shared some dinner during special occasions. and the 1-bottle sessions after office hours. maybe that's the reason why I am feeling we've known each other for such a long time now.

some of our officemates think we are 'pasaway' (but i think they just envy us.. hehe…). mainly because they see us differently from them. there's a 15-minute rule during breakfast and merienda but we never followed it. the 1-hour lunchbreak will always be more than 1-hour especially during lunchouts (there was a time when we went on lunchout for almost a month! hahaha! we're not rich, we just enjoy going out). but we don't care what other people say as long as we are doing our job. as i would always say, "walang pakialaman". we would always brag that "wala kasi kayong friends kaya sandali lang kayo kumain". because in every meal that we eat together, there's also so many things that we share with each other. the topics we've had was anything under the sun. from the news inside the company to the news in the country and even the world. from the gossips as to who will resign next, the things that the higher mngt are planning, the 'bosses' who act like a boss eventhough they are not, the gay boss (hahaha!). to the boxing match of pacquiao, the rate of salary abroad, the economy, the declaration of holidays, etc. the list would go on because we would go on talking about anything that slips in our mind. but our friendship is not perfect though. we also had some tampuhan. simple ones like the 'pizza and pandesal' issue. hehehe… but it never get into the way of our friendship that's why we remained in tact.

this is the reason why it saddens me so much that we have to go our separate ways now. Im here at KL, Kuya Andy is in Singapore, Lloyd is in Makati, Chelle will also be moving to Makati but with a different company. And Jen, Sherwin, Jr and Ryan are still with PAL, but who knows, one or maybe all of them may also have plans of moving out. They are the reasons why I cried during my despedida party at PAL. At first, I thought that it will just be okay. But on my last day, I can't help but cry thinking that I will not be with them anymore. i really miss all of them. that's why when we have an email thread, no matter how busy i am, i never fail to give a reply. i miss talking to them. i miss being with them.

but then, i'm really happy that eventhough we've only been together for a while, we were able to create a very good bond of friendship that i hope, and i know, will remain a lifetime. sabi nga ni tito andy sa farewell message niya sa akin, sa pag-alis ko ay buhay ko lang sa PAL ang natatapos, pero ang pagkakaibigan.. nasa puso!