Friday, September 26, 2008

Twenty-four

(Found this in my old blog. Something I wrote last February.)

No, I didn’ t feel any different.
The clock struck twelve and I was no longer twenty-three. That’s it. I didn’t feel older. I don’t think I felt any wiser. Maybe I will be, once I get the hang of this "growing up" bit.

It was five in the morning and my bags were packed for my three-day trip to Cebu (i.e., W-O-R-K).
The driver was waiting in the car outside, and my three officemates who were also taking the 7:30 flight were already there. They were clueless.

I met my boss at the airport. He bought me coffee and we talked while waiting for our boarding call. I figured he remembered, and the coffee was his gesture of greeting me. We finished our coffee and there was no mention of a birthday greeting.

Meanwhile, my phone was already getting flooded with birthday greetings from family and friends.
The flight went smoothly. I was asleep the whole time, except for the first few minutes. (Years of flying and I still read the safety reminders and try to pay attention to the flight attendant. )
I wrote another "vicarious flying experience" letter to my friend Jayjay as I always do everytime I’m on a plane.

It was a crazy day and we were all on our toes. Ten minutes before the conference started, I was asked to make a revision in the presentation. (Inner poise, inner poise, remain calm became my mantra )The conference went well.

No one still remembered. Not even my team.

In the evening, I bumped into Tita Marie who exclaimed, "It’s your birthday!" and greeted me. I told her she was the first person to greet me. (I figured she told everyone afterwards.)

I had a fever and asked to be excused for a while. I slept in Tita Marie’s room for an hour before our activities resumed. When I went down, everybody had weird grins on their faces. Then the greetings, kisses, and apologies came.

Our events for the day were over. We had dinner at the Grand Ballroom.I was talking to one of the guys in my team when someone said that our Senior VP (for whom I prepared the presentation) was looking for me, and that he was behind us. I did not see any reason why he would look for me because the Marketing Presentation was over, but I turned anyway.

My two bosses were walking towards me, each holding a birthday cake.
I realized that no matter how old I would get, the child in me will still remain.
I will still feel the same about birthday surprises and blowing my birthday candles.

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