Happily Ever After

Once upon a time, I always told myself that I would only blog about the important things in my life. That if something spectacular or special happened; I knew that it was certain that I’d write about it.

There have been quite a number already. There was the time I turned eighteen years old, back when I was in high school. There was the time that I had graduated high school. These blogs happened in the year when I had lost a family; that I knew that this family, would have already gone our own separate ways, knowing that we weren’t connected by blood. I wrote about these.

There was the time I discovered that I was in love for the first time, and my real discovery of what love is. Back then, it seemed that every moment, every emotion connected with “love” had been important. I wrote almost every single day.

Then there is today. There is that one thing that you’d think couldn’t be less special. It was homework; the kind that you have to work on, to be passed one meeting after. It was really nothing special, just another day in the office. I initially thought that it would just pass, like any other homework, and after everything is done, we would just go on and forget this project, forget what we’ve all been through. I thought that maybe even after all was said and done, we might even forget each other.

Everything started with a simple activity, within the classroom on the day that the homework was assigned. I was so excited to get the activity done, and to move on with the rest of the semester. We were only going to get grouped together once, once that all seven in our group would be in the same group for one entire project. I looked at that and saw that maybe, it was never going to be anything more than that.

          The session ended almost immediately, and we had planned to meet at the conclusion of that week, Friday, when we were all supposed to be free. It was just another session of brainstorming, just trying to complete the project. Nonetheless, it was entertaining. It was a great day, and it was productive. It was just that.

          We had assigned what needed to be done, what materials should each bring, and what we all needed to do over the weekend. Then online discussions began, ended and everything resumed the following week.

          Monday. This was the day when everything took a wild turn for the better. The dynamic of the project started to change completely. It was not just a project anymore, and our group was not just a group anymore. If there’s anything we learned in our Organizational Behavior class, it is that groups do not simply stay as groups forever. They form into teams; but we formed into so much more than that.

          I had to leave at 1130 from MVP221, the venue for most of the project work done. Coming back by 1200, it seemed as though nothing had really changed. The project was still under construction, and by 1220, only Mafee and myself remained in that room to take care of the project and whatever contents were left behind by the rest of the group (Roy, Fred, Berna, Alex, Matt).

          By 1300, I was left alone. I got to thinking how much this group, Factotum, was enjoying the project and each other’s company. I got to thinking how much I was enjoying this project and this group. We all developed into close friends really fast, and clearly one week was not enough time together.

          Like everything, Factotum had to begin from somewhere. It all started with issues. Roy, Fred, Berna and I were left behind in the small room where we had begun our project. Everything just became extremely fun from there. We had started to play around with the people in the group, pairing up Fred and Mafee, and me and Berna. It was all good, clean fun. Then Mafee joined us after a while, that’s when the fun began.

          Fake issues like these continued to linger on until the end of the day, around 1930, when we all parted ways to continue on our project the following day. Right then, I knew that come Wednesday, our project presentation was definitely going to be one hell of a ride. Between the seven of us, we knew that we were bound to enjoy our project.

          I eventually learned that something plain, simple and dull can be turned into something very interesting, and a lot of fun. All it took was the right attitude, and the right people to complement that. This is something I wouldn’t admit to everyone else, but if it weren’t for Roy, Fred and Mafee, the only juniors in our group, Factotum wouldn’t be any fun at all. Factotum became one thing that we did not want to leave behind. We were all sure that we would be great friends now and in the future. After all, all great stories end with that. And our story, which began with once upon a time in Com14, ended with happily ever after.