The Net, Photos and Goodbyes

I've had my Yahoo email account for 3 years now and like the pack rat that I am, I almost never delete messages I receive or send. I always tell myself that one day I am going to sit down and really do a big "delete", but then again, maybe not. Sometimes it pays off, like today when I found the digital copy of a photo of me at my NZ citizenship ceremony that was held at the Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna, North Shore City in May 2007. I thought I had lost that photo and yet, there it was, in my yahoo email, just waiting for me to retrieve it. The words of lawyer Katrina Legarda came to mind when I saw the photo. Ms. Legarda had said on national television, in relation to the Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili brouhaha, "mamatay ka na lang (even after you're dead), your picture will still be on the net."

Well, I am hoping no one will consider a photo of me --in Filipiniana attire, the kimona of which my very talented sister-in-law Joy painstakingly beaded for the occasion, wearing red "Ugly Betty" glasses, and sporting a very wide grin as I shook the hand of His Worship, the Mayor of North Shore City, Mr. George Wood, as he conferred New Zealand citizenship on me-- titillating enough for me to worry about what Ms. Legarda said about my photo outliving me.

Another gem that I found while browsing through my virtual filing cabinet was this email that I sent to my officemates at Colmar Brunton Research when I said my goodbyes. It has been almost 2 years since I left New Zealand to come home to Cebu and yet the pang I felt when I wrote my "valediction" back then still manages to affect me in the same way today. I know that this shall outlive me.

I reproduce the email here in its entirety.

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20 July 2007

Dear all,

This part I don't like…3 years worth of files and personal memorabilia must be packed up and the office tidied to make way for the lucky person who will succeed me. As I pull down photos and drawings from the wall--children's drawings, family photos and those of other families, including my Colmar Brunton one--I am struck by how much like home this little nook on the first floor had been for the past few years. Heck, I even have cow slippers under my desk and stuffed toys littering the place. I've got chocolates and candies stashed somewhere and my desk even has Jergens moisturizer. The only thing I need here is a bed really.

Thank you all for everything you have been to me. I am so damn proud to be a part of this great team. I leave you now with words from Ana Escalante-Neri, a free-spirit who said it so well.

"We leave home and come back changed: minds like suitcases stuffed with mementos, bearing the names and habits of new friends, the path of our own veins rerouted to stream more blood into the heart that no longer feels so small."

Love,
Kate