moving out.

currently listening to: the edge of the ocean/ivy.


2006 is a year of many goodbyes for me. Not just the friend-leaving-for-vacation kind of goodbyes. More of the thank-you-for-being-part-of-my-life-this-is-it goodbyes.

Yesterday, I had to move out--and move on. I was forced to say one of those goodbyes.

There were 15 doors to this "building"--a huge chunk of wood I have learned to love so much. I was on the first floor, the 3rd door from the left (as Lorraine would put it). In a span of one year, I worked side by side with my 9 neighbors whom I have learned to love dearly.

Yep, you guessed it. Yesterday, I had to let go of my locker.

It was an emotional morning. I had to officially say goodbye to something very close to my heart for the past year. I bid farewell to something that served as a storage space for everything--both extremely valuable and completely useless. It was where I went for anything that needed safekeeping or anything that needed to be stored and forgotten about for a while.

It was a place full of surprises that were meant just for me. Throughout the year, I have gone here to find countless scraps of paper here waiting for me--reminders to pay someone, go somewhere, or call someone up. It was here I found love letters and notes from both friends and strangers. A rose. Money. Pictures. Origami.

Unfortunately, not all my "neighbors" could make it to yesterday's drama special. However, Kellyn, Lorraine, Mao, Zeri and I moved out all the things we had accumulated over the year from dark, homey little spaces to huge, tattered, impersonal plastic bags. After taking countless pictures of what we wanted to remember, we took off our name plates, left traces that we had been there, and after what seemed like an eternity, handed over our keys to the lockers' new tenants for the year.

Yes, it was a bitter goodbye. However, we are confident that the new tenants of this building will take just as much care of this place as we did... after all, it's their home now.