A while ago, I was shifting houses. Although the location is the same (I just moved from one building to the next), I couldn’t help it but feel sad and melancholy. After all, this house I have been living for 2 years with memories of my pregnancy (me lying on the couch with ice cream and Netflix), my marriage (our first place together) and the start of freelancing (many hours holed up in the tiny study room). Even with the new anticipation of moving to a much bigger study room (twice the size of the old one), I will always miss our first house.
Not unlike moving from a home we loved, this feeling picked the same heartstrings whenever I moved from one job to the other. One tiny secret to share with my readers: as much as I enjoy accepting a new job and relishing the new challenges it will bring, I always weep a little at the thought of leaving the old job. Even when the boss is evil. Or the rotten office politics. Or that nasty backstabbing b*tch sitting next to me. There are always good things to miss about the old job.
Call me a sentimental old fool. Call me emotional charge woman. I always believe there’s a good side to every bad situation. Be it the comfort of my little cubicle, my worn out desk even my tired groaning office chair. Or the gossipy toilet cleaning ladies at my office building who love to share a tidbit every now and then. Even the muffled sound of my boss yelling at someone else (other than me) behind his office’s closed doors. There’s always something, no matter how small, to be missed. Every office, every desk I ever sat in, grows so fondly in my heart as I set my sights towards the new location of my new job.
Not to mention the colleagues whom I have worked together so well, the tough battles we fought side by side. Sometimes in victories, sometimes bloodied and lost, retreating to our comfort group, licking each other’s trampled egos. Some of them became one of the rare precious friendships blossom over the years, often meet up to reminisce the historic battles, bonds so tight that time couldn’t tear us apart. Others, drifted away as months goes by, only to drop a few likes on Facebook every few posts or to get updates from their LinkedIn accounts.
Even as time passes by, my heart still leaps at whenever any of my ex-companies are mentioned in the news, good or bad. Whether it is the rumours of a share buyout of M1 Telecommunications company by a China owned company or the grand opening of Singapore’s first Apple retail store, opening up new conversation tidbits between me and ex-colleagues which I relished every single bit.
As I stroked my fingers across the kitchen counter on my soon-to-be ex-home, just like I always do to my soon-to-be ex-workplace, couldn’t help the sorrow as I closed the door to the old chapter of my life while I turned towards a new chapter in my book.
Sorry, just being emo 🙂
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