filing away life

I was working on my thesis when I heard the all-so-familiar sound of the postman’s motorcycle.
Followed by the usual Tet! Tet!
Herm...an express mail – ‘That must be it’, was what I thought.
My desk is right in front of the window, overlooking the front porch...
So yeah, I’ve been stalking the mail man weeks before Raya because I was waiting on an important letter from the university.

I kept my head poised over my laptop though – not flinching even one bit.
Even though my head was all over the place after the first ‘Tet!’ sound.
Then, Dad came in with a big envelope in his hand – Aha! LOL.

I read through the stack, jotting down things that I have to prepare and do.
All of my important documents – birth cert, passport, and academic cert, my degree cert, blah, blah, blah....
I keep it in big folder – a blue and white checker file.
I thought to myself, “What the hell...might as well clean this ‘Pandora box’ a little bit now that I’ve opened it”.
So I did.

My kindergarten cert is still in there.
Along with receipts, letters and other office stuff.
There’s also some goodbye letters and cards from students...
The 10 000 Baht I received in my first year, helping a group of students from Thailand cruising around the campus...their lecturer was very kind...
Some keepsakes... a 100 000 rupiah from Indonesia when I went there for my teaching practical...
And a couple of Mauritius rupee coins from last trip in July.

My first ever pay-cheque slip...LOL. God, I still have that?
And my entire collection of student’s ID cards I’ve ever received...from high school, matriculation college, degree years, colleges...some even has changed its colours over the years....
Some TVXQ! Stickers...a bank slip for JYJ concert goodies and tickets that I purchased last year...
A dream came true...
I still feel the adrenaline and the feeling of immense happiness every time I think of that day when I was under the same roof as Jaejoong...
Even now, each time I get onto the LRT or monorail...I will make sure to catch a glimpse of Stadium Negara...forever an important landmark for me.

At the bottom of the first folder, I found 5 stickers of cute girls.
Now thinking back on it, I bought these when I was 12...
I used to have a thing for stickers...I collected them and sold them to friends at school.
Oh yeah...I was kind of an entrepreneur when I was young. LOL.
I was saving it for the right time... I guess it just never came.

My degree courses lasted for 4 years (yeah, it was long; all from the education faculty lasts that long).
In that file, I still have all eight of my examination slips (2 for each year).
Man, it is really a miracle how the file can hold all of this stuff....

I got rid of out-dated letters, trash, old receipts, more trash...
Now, the file is no longer bulging like it was before.
It has ‘slimmed down’ a little. Okay, a wee lil bit. LOL.
What can I say, I’m a collector.

This cleaning-of-file job...
I can’t wait to do it again after another 5 or 10 years.
The reminiscent moments as I flipped through the folders...
As I picked up traces from yesteryears...
It gave me a fluttery bittersweet feeling.
I felt like my heart bloomed when I touched these...
These evidences of my past existence.

A new semester will reopen soon...what I hope to be my last.
Time runs too fast. It was only a year ago when I applied for my Master degree...
A lot of things have happened since then...some were bad but mostly good if you are the optimistic kind of gal like me. LOL.

Like always, I will take this file back to the uni again with me.

I took the bus a lot since I first started life away from home and that was like almost 6 years ago...
If I had kept every bus ticket I’ve ever bought, I wonder what will happen to the file...
Herm...
Even so, there is only one bus ticket that I will never throw away...
And that was for my longest bus ride I ever had in my life.
It was when I went for my interview, alone last May.
The memories itself were unbelievable...with nothing but a resume, a blazer and a bottle of mineral water...some cash and a return ticket home.
No change of clothes whatsoever...so I practically didn’t wash myself for 2 days.
On the morning of the interview till the next morning I arrived home.
Radical, isn’t it? ;)

I am a naturalist, romanticist and optimist.
I am a dreamer. I am an observer.
I am a collector.

I am me.
Now, tell me who are you?