Last Friday (July 6, 2007), was the hardest Friday that I had ever faced in my life. I woke up with text messages the night before from Ann. The messages read as follows;

Text Message  1:
Pwera biro, it’s so sad na I’ll lose a very good friend. Kahit sabihin mo na we’ll be in touch. Iba pa din yung malayo ka na. Pero at the same time, I’, happy for you. Lam ko you have your reasons, and as a friend, I have to understand. I’ll never forget our unforgettable cab memories, and the tawanan ang reklamo sessions every lunch and uwian. Thank you for the memories. 

Text Message 2:
Strong people make just as many mistakes as weak people do. But the friend says this: the stronger ones admit their mistakes, laugh about them, and learn from them

Text Message 3:
Umiiyak ako kay James kagabi. Kainis ka. ….Basta sabi ko kay James, sobrang nanghihinayang ako to lose a friend like you. Someone who really cares.

I cried over these messages but more than these texts, I cried over the memories I shared with the greatest friends I made at work. I cried and cried because in the coming days, I knew I will no longer share the same space with these companions. When I go to work in the morning, I will be greeting a new set of different faces, new friends. In the coming weeks and months, I knew, I will no longer share the same memories of fun and sorrows with Ann, Polly, Diana and the rest of Headstrong’s Recruitment. Eventually, I will have to finally say “good bye” to them.

Goodbye is indeed a sad word. I am a person who always see the positive in the negative yet, that Friday goodbye just carried all the burdens of having to leave behind some wonderful people, the best friends, the best bosses. Goodbye is such a painful word that Friday for it meant nothing but losing the memories I yet have to share with these great persons. If I just choose to stay, things might turn out the opposite.  

That same morning, I replied to Ann’s messages saying: Just think of me as your daughter that you will have to let go, because I am getting married to the person I love, and you shall let me go because you know I am happy if I choose to live with this man even if I will have to leave you, my mother behind.

I do not know if everyone would agree to my analogy of getting married and resigning. In a way, no matter how much we deny, goodbye can indeed be positive. It is a new beginning. It is an end, yet a new and fresh start.

I stood up and faced my Friday. I signed another job offer and later that day, I tendered my resignation.

Today, as I write these words, I am ending a story and starting a new one. I would like to say that this old story will have a happy ending. I know that the new story might start just like how the old story started, yet I know that I am already armed and equipped with experiences and lessons that my first story and its characters taught me.