The Yearling

April 3 marked my first year at US Auto Parts. Time went so fast. It’s as if it was just yesterday when then clean-cut Tj arrived at the company doorsteps.

Back then the office looked like a security agency. The walls of the 6th floor were wobbly enough that if punched, the cracked wood would reveal a striving termite metropolis. Down at the first floor where my department is, things were like the twilight zone. Sometimes the air from the a/c would freeze you to death, sometimes it burns your scalp. Fume from the comfort room can be so toxic that the last visitor would not be able to make it back to his/her seat. There were only a few employees to accord to. Some of them have already gone, some remained.

A lot of things has changed since then.

The 6th floor pantry now houses our NBA 2K8 Xbox wars which are waged in front of Samsung Plasma Screen. I’m pretty sure there are no more termites around, ultra-modern furniture is quite a tough chew. The wind doesn’t blow four seasons anymore, only but a comfortable atmosphere weathers us. US Auto Parts is now a well respected in-house BPO company. And perhaps the biggest change that happened, our department expanded. New faces were welcomed, new bonds were formed.

I am a witness to year that has passed. If I look at my co-worker’s faces right now, I can see the changes that has happened to them. It’s all great, but you know what? Some of them haven’t changed a bit! These people are exactly the same the way they were twelve months ago. For better or for worse, I don’t care. Sometimes what matters is that they’re here, and that we can turn to them for being exactly who you accepted them to be, at work and in person.

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Back then you were reading Half the World Away, now it’s Life and Times. Have I changed? If someone has an answer, please don’t bother to tell. May or may not, all that matters is that we’re here. For better or for worse, all that matters is that there’s always another year. There is growth for sure, always, as time goes by.