To My Roomie on Her Super Day

"The first time we laid eyes on each other, we didn't know what life had in store for us. It was an extraordinary setting right from the beginning: we went straight into cohabitation mode from Day 1... sharing life 24/7... waking each other up, hanging out, studying, preparing meals, dishwashing, walking, chatting, writing, drinking, shopping, clubbing, ranting, sleeping, and waking up again... reminding each other of healthy eating (tomato soup and green salad and tuna on whole wheat), healthy drinking (Gato Negro) and deadlines... keeping each other company in the wee hours, enduring sleepless nights together, and missing each other like hell whenever we're apart. When fate forced us to part after 11 months, it was one of the toughest farewells that any human being on this planet could possibly endure..."

That was the "drama queen" version of the story of me and my roommate in grad school (E., you know who you are) If it sounded a bit like a passionate affair, it's because it WAS. If we were to survive and thrive in the affair that was the graduate management program @ AIM, we had better be passionate about it. 

We've followed different paths since graduation, right E.? But everytime I see our pictures, our batch video, the greeting cards, the books that you gave me, I can't help but reminisce about our stint there... and it brings warm feelings and a smile to my face. Every. Single. Time. 

I might have told you this one way or the other, directly or indirectly, but on this 26 April 2008, YOUR super day, I just want to let you know that: those 11 months were a truly, utterly unforgettable, rewarding, enlightening period in my life; and the graduate degree was one of my greatest achievements; and you were there every step of the way, making those dreadful cases and industry study and WACs and MRR and Walkabout just a tad more bearable and even fun :)... and that I could never have made it without you. 

So,here's to you, my dearest, dearest E., my warmest congratulations and my bestest wishes... to your Super Walkabout, to the new exciting chapter in your life, to a healthy happy life being Mrs. L, to your starfish! 

P.S: and C., you lucky fellow, now that you're her lifelong Roomie, please take good care of her :)

The Virgin Post: a Tribute to Descartes

This is my very first post. After months--no, years--of browsing and lurking, I finally braced myself to start my own blog. Someone (a seasoned blogger, I suppose) said that you've got to make sure you have something interesting and of value for people to read, before you even think of creating your own blog. Someone else (a frustrated writer, I presume) said that you have the right to express yourself (yes, even anonymously, you cowards) anytime anywhere anyhow. Both of them got a point... as for "having something interesting and of value" to write, well, I've spent many a night reading and watching stuff on the Net... from headline news to political rants to funny animal videos to celeb gossips to save-the-planet campaigns to personal written abuse in "comments" section between people who don't even know each other... lots of them are uninteresting and even more of them have no value whatsoever... yet they manage to keep me glued to the screen (or is it just me?). So, dear Rene, as you said five centuries ago, "cogito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am)... dare I now say, "blogito, ergo sum" (I blog, therefore I am)?