Looking Back to 2007

This is the time of the year when people write about their new year's resolution. I am no exception since I myself have listed some. Then again, it is also worth looking back to how things had been in 2007. For me, it was a very challenging year, or should I say, the most challenging year I have ever faced so far.

2007 was a year of loss…

It all begun in an event that happened just before the year 2006 ended. Because of that too-unpleasant-to-discuss event, I lost the 2 most precious friendships that I used to have. Sigh… Sigh… Sigh… But that's not the saddest part. What's more unfortunate was that I also lost the interest to bring that friendship back because a lot much uglier things happened as an offshoot of that. Whatever I hear now, I just shrug my shoulders. For as far as I'm concerned there were only 2 persons that deserved to hear my explanation. One was WT. The other one didn't give me the chance to air my side of the story and chose to believe only what she prefers. I believe I have done my part so I won't push it anymore.

Material things wise, I also had major losses. For one, my family lost a house. The place where I grew up and where I spent the 24 years of my life was brought down and we were forced to move to another place. Well, although we know that legally we have the right to stay there, we just chose to let it go since the amount of time, money and stress that that battle requires cannot be compensated by that small piece of lot where our house used to stand. I also lost my credit card by some up-to-now-unknown circumstances. The b*#^# was able to forge my signature and my card has been used to multiple transactions already before I got even aware that it was missing from my wallet. When I phoned the credit card bank, my credit limit was all used up already. It still makes me so gigil when I speak of how much that b@*#$ had spent so I won't be mentioning the amount anymore… To top it all of, the laptop that we had in the office, which was unfortunately purchased under my name was stolen during one weekend when (of all the weekends) the security cameras were all off. Although I wasn't asked to pay for it, still the stress that it brought caused me not to speak to one of my superiors for more than a month.

The biggest loss I had in 2007 was of course when me and WT broke up. I couldn't believe it has almost been a year now. I can still remember the blog I posted then saying how much I have lost due to that break up (see: joinme4awhile.blogs.friendster.com). More so, I could not also believe that a year after that what-I-thought-was-end-of-everything broke-up, we will be back in each other's arms trying to patch things up…

And so maybe it's also all about that. That no matter how much we seem to have lost, if we look at the other side of things, we have in fact gained some as well.

I may have lost two great friendships but I also gained several new ones. I now have constant companions during lunchbreaks composed of officemates from different departments ("The Lunchgroup" as we call ourselves). I also have the "Thursday Club", my constant companion now during weekday gimmicks. I also became close to co-employees in other branches, those that I have met during company activities I have actively shared part of. More importantly, I was able to revive old friendships with my college tropa as we now go out more often that we used to since our college grad. Bottomline, I gained a much wider horizon in terms of relationship with peers because of those losses.

Material wise, I got promoted. Higher compensation means I can now afford to pay the house where we've moved to. I can in fact buy more of the things I now want than I used to. I am actually even planning to buy a new laptop one of these days… (modesty aside… )

When it comes to my relationship with WT, needless to say, we have moved to a much mature level of relationship. I would just like to share some exchanges of messages that we had:

(Me to him on his birthday last August) - "we may have been apart in some ways for the past months… but come to think of it, our broke-up has actually brought us closer to one another as we now understand each other better, we've come to see our better side, we've proven that there are certain things that only you and me can give to one another…, we've humbly accepted our own faults…, and most especially, we were able to make each other feel special despite the separation…"

(Him to me during our supposed 3rd anniversary–grammar edited, hehehe) - "it's our day! Time is not what's important for me. No matter how good or bad our past may be, I will only hold on to what I feel for you. Though we may not be together officially, we can both vouch for that we are sharing now is special… promise to improve the way I'm treating you… you never left my heart and never did I remove you from it…"

So with that, I now say HELLO to 2008!