… and this time, it’s not only in my dreams!
Today was my first day back in the office after 12 days of vacation. There were a few seconds when my fingers hovered uncertainly over the keyboard, unsure of which keys to click to set my computer to life. A P&G GM who was an advocate of work-life balance once said that the true sign of a successful vacation is if you forgot your passwords. I eventually did remember mine, but the fact that I had to struggle for a moment there is a good sign in itself, right?
I felt as though I had forgotten how to reconcile funds. My mind had gotten used to being on vacation mode. The heavy rain – perfect bed weather – only made it a lot harder to keep my eyes open. I was sure that today was gonna suck big time. Until…
“Joc, Dee, come here,” our manager Lucas called us over to his desk. I wondered what this was about. “You both want to take leaves on the same dates for December,” he told us when we reached him. “I know you want to attend Monet’s wedding, but you can’t both go. So you have to talk between yourselves about this.”
“Oh,” I said rather dumbly at first. Then I turned to Joc and cracked a smile, saying, “Should we just rock-paper-scissors for it?” It elicited a laugh from them both. “Or maybe you can pull each other’s hair,” Lucas added, his chinky eyes narrowing even more in his amusement. Turns out we didn’t have to resort to such drastic measures. Joc was fine with moving her vacation to a week before Christmas, giving me the coveted slots. “Oh,” I said rather dumbly again. My brain really is slow in processing today.
But I guess I just didn’t expect it. Though I had applied for this leave months ago, I had set myself up for disappointment, like I usually do, so that when the rejection comes, it will be less painful. So only when I got the mail confirming that my leaves had been approved did reality sink in, when I realized that this would be my first time to be home for Christmas after three years, since I left the Philippines to live in Singapore. Only then did I allow myself to let a grin spread across my face, the way it did when I ripped open my Christmas present and saw that my parents had pulled through and finally got me a Barbie doll, the present that I had wanted for ages.
Thank you, Santa, for this early Christmas present. 🙂
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