6th August: Last day with FP Finance

6th August 2014 : The day I ended my work at Fairprice Finance with the AR department.

Spending the last 3 whole months working here amongst the sweetest people I could ever meet in an office, and have them patiently teach me the ropes while I clumsily tried to introduce math back into my life (damn you, English major) proved to be one of the most valuable lessons I've ever picked up in my life. Since this was my second time working here with Fairprice ( I worked here last year, but under a different department, Sales department I think), I still remember how, on the first day I stepped into the office this year, Joan (AKA Big sister) remarked that I looked extremely tired and sad. And that's kind of true, because I remember that sinking feeling of disappointment when I realised that our department had no other temp staff. In fact, I went so far as to think of quitting within the first 2 weeks because the nostalgia was overpowering. Back then, I was still struggling with the nostalgia of Zul and Nigel last year, when I actually had temp staff whom I could kinda (?) get along with. Add that to the horror of realising that most, wait no, everyone in my department spoke Chinese, I thought I was a goner (Again, damn you English major). At least, where making friends were concerned. I braced myself for a rough 3 months.

But I guess that if I could take these photo at the end of my 3 months, you'd have probably guessed that things took a turn for the better.

The semi-complete AR department, minus Xiufeng who was on MC :(

AR department minus Zibin and Xiufeng

The temp staff in 3 (no, not 50) shades of grey. Minus Jun Hao, whom isn't here because he was in reservist.

My supervisor Zibin and I. Yes, our matching grey jackets again.

2 weeks into working there and I finally, finally started to open up. And I never looked back since. Despite the language barrier, I managed to pick up some Chinese (omgosh right) and could communicate with them in simple, english-slanged Chinese, which till this day they can't stop teasing me about. They turned out to be a bunch of such fun-loving people, and they even opened up to me too, being privy to their woes and joys of working within the environment. Even those whom I thought I would never have a chance to talk to cordially eventually opened up to me as well, and I'm very thankful for that. Perhaps only now can I say that being a part of their jokes and teasing was the only reason why I pulled through this entire 3 months. (Cue Zibin's various somewhat derogatory nicknames oops :P ) But jokes aside, I honestly can't be more thankful to this small group of people. It turned out that having a small department worked to my advantage as well because I knew everyone personally. Because of this, 3 months suddenly appeared to pass by too quickly and before I knew it, I was ending. It was somewhat bittersweet, I guess, but having been only there for 3 months I can't say very much, except for the fact that its yet another phase of my life that's just passed. And that's what makes this ending sad, because after having been close to them, at the end of the day, I'm still a temp staff, and I still have to leave after an unbearably short time because Uni sememster's starting. A part of me knows that, realistically, its extremely difficult to do this seeing as we have no common topics. Still, I sometimes cling to the hope that we'd still talk, perhaps just an occasional hello, or a quick catchup. Afterall, they're my first experience working within an office (the kindergarten doens't count), and first experiences always make for the most memorable ones. 

I have one more opportunity to see them though, and that's for my farewell which was supposed to be last Friday but which got postponed, so.. I'm looking forward to that. 

In part, it was thanks to the temp staff who joined who eventually made my life there whole, because there was Daniel from last year whom rejoined the company, so finally I had a friend whom I knew before.

I guess all these factors eventually contributed to the fact that I enjoyed those 3 months. Work, while menial for me, was a form of catharsis, and hence it purged me from the stresses of school. Where I once couldn't fathom the idea of talking to Zibin, my last few weeks had me pestering him for help with registering for the Colour Run. The same went with the other perm staff, because I would have never dreamed of talking to them about my personal matters. but I eventually did. Perhaps you could say that I'm being overly grateful, but to be honest, there's nothing like the first time which teaches you the most. 

And so, to my manager, my team leader, and all the clerical officers, thank you. It's been great.