So long and thanks for all the fish

I've been loved.

I quit my job a good month before the date of my departure. My official excuse is that packing up the entire 23 years of my life into boxes will take time. Which is, of course to a certain extent true - tax clearance with the IRB, selling off investments, redeeming deposits, all the other random banking stuff and the tedious forms to be filled, it all takes time and many repeat visits. However the real reason laid in job dissatisfaction.

So I left, with a certain sense of trepidation like how I did in high school, when the popular kids' interest in me depended on their fluctuating hormone levels and mood swings then. Would I spend my free days glued to the computer/ TV monitor? Would no one notice my leaving? Would my entire existence leave no impression? Would anyone miss me at all?

It was a little like dying. I've always wondered how many would show up at my funeral. My long drawn "death" has yielded nothing but kindness from friends and family.

Thank you for coming out to meet me, I know you're all busy people. Thank you for filling my days with your presence and love. Thank you for going through the trouble of organizing farewells. Thank you for attending the ones I organized. Thank you for the thoughtful gifts and cards. Thank you for hovering like vultures over the books I can't afford to ship over. Thank you for planning the trip to Kuantan. Thank you for telling me you'll miss me, it means the world to me, I'll miss you all too. Thank you for the poem! Thank you for offering to accompany me to the airport - but I think I'll save the teary face for family. Thank you for offering to organize your engagement parties around my arrival.

Thank you for letting me know I mattered at all.