My First Day

(Innove and Keppel Building at Cebu Business Park)

March 24, 2008 - Monday. I woke up early that day. It was my first day as a trainee and I was scheduled for my orientation at 8 a.m. I rode a jeepney to Cebu business park where the LRDC offices were. Not really knowing the routes of the various jeepneys, I ended up riding a jeepney with a 13C route. Because of that, I had to walk a long way before I could get to Globe - Innove Building where my orientation would be. Cebu business park was a nice place. I saw Ayala Cebu for the first time, though it was still closed. Then I went inside Innove building. I was issued a temporary ID by the security at the security desk. My orientation was to be at the 8th floor. I almost got lost. There were several elevators there and I wasn't quite sure which one to take. Then I noticed that above the doorway of each elevator was a sign that identified the floors on which the elevators covered.


I got to the 8th floor. The floor security asked me to sit for a while in the waiting lounge because the HR personnel were not ready yet. And so I sat. Someone else was also there. He was there before I was. Suddenly he asked me why I was there. I told him that I was scheduled for my orientation as a trainee. He said he was also in there for his orientation but as a new employee. He was Christopher Tan. He is an Computer Engineering graduate and had worked in Japan for 5 years. He said he came back to the Philippines because the work ethics of the Japanese took so much of his social life. He is a married man though I wasn't able to guess that because he only looked slightly older than I was. Anyway, after a while someone else arrived. It was another new hire of Lexmark. She was Zyra Mae Canto. She was a very friendly person. It wasn't hard for Chris and me to get to know her. She is an Accountancy graduate and she had worked for a semiconductor company for 2 years. She also turned out to be a graduate of MSU-IIT, the school where I'm currently studying. It was nice to know that graduates from my school were really fairing well in their carreers, and Zyra proves that. Later in my stay at Lexmark, I was to find out that there were in fact several MSU-IIT graduates working there. A few minutes after Zyra arrived, another new hire came. It was Anna Marie Bautista. She was a very charming person. Pretty and dimpled, she caught our attention right away. She and Zyra turned out to be acquaintances as they shared the same degree. Soon after she arrived, the orientation started.

The orientation was held in one of the 8th floor conference rooms. It was my first time in such a sophisticated conference room and I admit I was pretty much amazed by what I saw. After our introductions, I was a bit nervous because I was the only trainee to be oriented at that time. All the others were new hires. There were 9 of us and only Chris and I were the only males. But as it turned out, all of them were very nice and I even had lunch with them. Obviously, I was the youngest in the group. Our first day of orientation ended around six p.m. I asked my new friend Chris if he could tell me where I was supposed to get my ride back to my dorm. Kind Chris accompanied me all the way to the jeepney stop and told me what jeepney to ride. Soon, I was on my way.

I arrived at the dorm, still feeling, well, blank. i wasn't feeling anything. I wasn't happy but I wasn't sad also. I just felt nothing. I went to my room and changed my clothes. After I went straight to dinner, still at the cafeteria.

I couldn't recall much of what happened after. I didn't keep track of what was happening. I never thought that I would be wondering about it in the future. I'm not sure whether what I'm about to share next did happen in my first Monday. All I'm sure is that its one of the things I couldn't forget.

I think it was when I was about to have dinner. While looking at the food being displayed at the counter, I bumped into Jobert. I can't remember what we talked about but it was brief. We greeted each other and he asked me something, I just can't remember what. Then he left. as I said, the conversation was brief. But despite the brevity, it was nice to have someone to talk to. I felt I had made a new friend. Somehow my spirit lifted. I now had another friend.

As usual I went to my room alone again. Soon after, I fell asleep. Thus my first day ended.