Three years and almost five months.

Tokens for HSBC employees who have stayed with the company for three years.
The loot (which took a long time before it was given to us) contains a Certificate of Appreciation, a Waterman pen with the HSBC logo (which we can also get engraved with our names, for free), and an HSBC 3 Years pin.

The first photo in the collage is of fresh-faced me on my college graduation. I graduated from the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (University of the City of Manila) on 31 March 2007 with a Bachelor of Mass Communication degree. Those who know me personally already know the story - or you might have read it in this blog before - that my job seemed to just have fallen into my lap. Two weeks after graduation, feeling pretty bored with my life, I attended a job fair with my friend Jinna on Thursday, 19 April 2007. Friday, we went to the interview, and before I even realized what has just happened, I started with my job on Monday, 23 April 2007. Jinna and I jokingly told each other that we won't apply for any promotion anymore as we'll stay there for just six months.

Three years and almost five months after that day, I am still with HSBC.

I won't give any justifications anymore on why I am still with the company as that is not the purpose of this post. What struck me while looking at these tokens is that, in that relatively short span of time, so many things can change.

In the past three years and almost five months (aside from all of the new places I went to, people I met, and new memories created),

• I learned how to be more independent. I moved out of my parents' house almost two years ago and enjoyed my newly-found freedom while practicing responsibility for my actions.
• My ideal "real" world got shattered by a series of disillusionments. A majority of the people I met in the office are the best workmates a fresh girl  out of college can ask for, but there are always weeds among the flowers. I faced the bitterness of office gossips, marital infidelities (i.e. people in the office cheating on their wives/ husbands with workmates), and office bullies.
• I learned that there are people who are genuinely nice that their kindness and good hearts shine from within, while there are some people who can't help but spout negativity in every other sentence that comes out their mouths.
• I learned that karma is a real b*tch. I broke the heart of one person, and in return got my heart broken by another, twice.
• Most importantly, and the saddest fact of all, I learned that not all friendships last. People change, and there is nothing we can do about it.