Rummaging through my picture archive a few days ago, I happened to come across this picture, and I smiled at the flood of memories coming back to me.
The A4 sized basket bag that I bought from a stall in Chinatown and whose red dye would go running whenever it rained, the Nokia silver alphanumeric phone that I used extensively during this season of time and which I had fond memories of, the scarf that I tied on the basket bag because I thought it would make it look classier, and the bracelets that the hippie-loving me had encircled around my wrist.
You know, it has been 12 years since this picture was taken on the upper level of a double decker bus with what I believe was a HP camera... and how the years have gone by.
We've all changed, in one way or another. We've gone through the ups and downs of the years past, and it is all we can do right now to look at the memories we hold in our hands and smile.
It's funny, I didn't know that Hewlett Packard had a camera division then, and I don't know whether they still have it now.
Whichever it might be, I'm glad they had a division, and I'm glad my friend had the HP camera. Otherwise this picture would never have been captured, I wouldn't own this memory, and I'd never have a reminder of who I was 12 years ago versus who I am now.
I don't speak of it often, but 12 years ago I was an events executive in a sports events company. For someone who wasn't very sporty, who was afraid of basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, Captain's Balls and the like, and who favoured leisure sports over competitive ones aka a pick-the-shuttlecock game of badminton, a bit of scenic bike riding and a lazy round of swimming in the public pool, it was a bit of a mismatch.
But see, I really wanted to try out an events job at least once in my career life.... and this was a company searching for a community events executive- which was precisely what I wanted to do.
Of course, in my naivety, it didn't occur to me that the community events executive would have to double up in the sport events arena as well, but within three days of being hired, in between all the various tasks and community event coordination, I was tasked to go around primary schools winding up wires, carrying plastic cones, listening to some old dude share about his non-smoking story in school assemblies and arranging sandbags- all in the hot afternoon sun.
Let's just say that my stamina wasn't as hearty as it is now, and I went home in tears...
Let's also say that the fish out of water exercised her mental, emotional and physical capabilities as much as she could during the entire time she was there.
It was, how shall I put it, an experience with a big E.
I learnt how to use a stapler gun (!!!). I learnt how to tie the strings on street soccer goalposts. I also learnt how to draw a street soccer score chart. I got introduced to people who found midnight jogs relaxing and I discovered that you could save a substantial amount of money by cutting out stickers with a scissors instead of getting it printed die-cut.
There were other lessons on the by and by. Like the fact that coffee shop talk had to be done in (only) a certain dialect- and not anything else. Or the fact that you could be tasked to solve a problem that your own boss couldn't solve and then be made to feel guilty about it.
I can't say that I did well- it is subjective- but I can say that I did the best my personality allowed me to.
We were a poor fit, end of story, and for a long while after I couldn't return to the area where the office was based, and I couldn't bear to listen to the accent that the boss owned because of all the many instructions that she used to give to me. -_-
But here's the thing.
I'm still not very sporty, nor have I grown a sudden competitive streak, but with the personality that I have become, I think I would make a better fit to the events company now than I used to be.
At least I'd be more comfortable with the nuances, the habits, the patterns, the quirks and I would be more at ease with sport talk and Decathlon and trainers and tops and backpacks and diets.
To the very least the backpack has replaced the basket bag, I have track pants in black, blue, baby blue and pink, I own three pairs of sports shoes, I wear a sports watch, and after having Quincy and Rose, I'm now going happily week on week with Daffy.
The A4 sized basket bag that I bought from a stall in Chinatown and whose red dye would go running whenever it rained, the Nokia silver alphanumeric phone that I used extensively during this season of time and which I had fond memories of, the scarf that I tied on the basket bag because I thought it would make it look classier, and the bracelets that the hippie-loving me had encircled around my wrist.
You know, it has been 12 years since this picture was taken on the upper level of a double decker bus with what I believe was a HP camera... and how the years have gone by.
We've all changed, in one way or another. We've gone through the ups and downs of the years past, and it is all we can do right now to look at the memories we hold in our hands and smile.
It's funny, I didn't know that Hewlett Packard had a camera division then, and I don't know whether they still have it now.
Whichever it might be, I'm glad they had a division, and I'm glad my friend had the HP camera. Otherwise this picture would never have been captured, I wouldn't own this memory, and I'd never have a reminder of who I was 12 years ago versus who I am now.
I don't speak of it often, but 12 years ago I was an events executive in a sports events company. For someone who wasn't very sporty, who was afraid of basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, Captain's Balls and the like, and who favoured leisure sports over competitive ones aka a pick-the-shuttlecock game of badminton, a bit of scenic bike riding and a lazy round of swimming in the public pool, it was a bit of a mismatch.
But see, I really wanted to try out an events job at least once in my career life.... and this was a company searching for a community events executive- which was precisely what I wanted to do.
Of course, in my naivety, it didn't occur to me that the community events executive would have to double up in the sport events arena as well, but within three days of being hired, in between all the various tasks and community event coordination, I was tasked to go around primary schools winding up wires, carrying plastic cones, listening to some old dude share about his non-smoking story in school assemblies and arranging sandbags- all in the hot afternoon sun.
Let's just say that my stamina wasn't as hearty as it is now, and I went home in tears...
Let's also say that the fish out of water exercised her mental, emotional and physical capabilities as much as she could during the entire time she was there.
It was, how shall I put it, an experience with a big E.
I learnt how to use a stapler gun (!!!). I learnt how to tie the strings on street soccer goalposts. I also learnt how to draw a street soccer score chart. I got introduced to people who found midnight jogs relaxing and I discovered that you could save a substantial amount of money by cutting out stickers with a scissors instead of getting it printed die-cut.
There were other lessons on the by and by. Like the fact that coffee shop talk had to be done in (only) a certain dialect- and not anything else. Or the fact that you could be tasked to solve a problem that your own boss couldn't solve and then be made to feel guilty about it.
I can't say that I did well- it is subjective- but I can say that I did the best my personality allowed me to.
We were a poor fit, end of story, and for a long while after I couldn't return to the area where the office was based, and I couldn't bear to listen to the accent that the boss owned because of all the many instructions that she used to give to me. -_-
But here's the thing.
I'm still not very sporty, nor have I grown a sudden competitive streak, but with the personality that I have become, I think I would make a better fit to the events company now than I used to be.
At least I'd be more comfortable with the nuances, the habits, the patterns, the quirks and I would be more at ease with sport talk and Decathlon and trainers and tops and backpacks and diets.
To the very least the backpack has replaced the basket bag, I have track pants in black, blue, baby blue and pink, I own three pairs of sports shoes, I wear a sports watch, and after having Quincy and Rose, I'm now going happily week on week with Daffy.