Thank you, goodbye

Dear Stevo,

From a stranger to a colleague. From a colleague to a good friend. Then we go out for dinner more often. And then I started to fetch you home everyday after work. And not long after that I started to fetch you to go to work in the morning. We have built a closer relationship since that time. After that I moved to stay in the same apartment and then moved once again to stay in the same house. And now, you are going to leave the country back to Beijing to start a new life.

The whole process from knowing you to the day you leave takes only 1 year and 3 months. This is not a short period of time and it’s not a long one as well. But staying together with you and Kevin has been one of the most memorable moments in my life. Whenever you talk about your leaving, I will just keep quiet because I truly hope that you would stay but at the same time I am happy for you that you have found your dream job at a place that you truly belong.

Time passes so fast that I can still remember how I met you during my first day at work. We were in the same car on the way to have our lunch and you were wearing the Padini black shirt with white stripes. You looked very cool, neat and quiet and I was thinking you must be those English educated banana with good family background who works only for the sake of fun. It makes me feel like laughing now because the Stevo I know today is completely a different person I thought you used to be.

You are the only person that will sing loudly “I… believe…” in the office. You are always there to cheer things up, making all those funny jokes and laughing and screaming so loud like there’s no tomorrow. When you play, you play like crazy and playing seems to be the only meaning in your life. But when it comes to work, you work like a professional, staying overnight for days and rushing projects like mad. I am just like no one compare to your attitude towards playing and working.

You are a really talented person and you learn things faster than anyone else I know. I used to teach you how to swim with free style according to my limited knowledge of free style swimming. In only a short time period, you can already swim better, longer and faster then I do. Now I am not dare to tell anyone that I taught you how to swim before.

There was once I did something wrong and being scolded by the big boss, I felt very down and keep saying that I wanted to resign. After you knew about the whole situation, instead of calming me down, you scolded me for being such a fool thinking that everything has reached a point of no return. Life has much more bigger obstacles waiting for me you said, and how can I go further if I cannot even face this small matter. How true it is when I am thinking of it right now. In fact, you have made me realise more about life.

You taught me how to take the easy way out of life. You taught me how to be responsible to what I say. You taught me that I should be comfortable of being myself. And most importantly, you taught me that I should not waste my time to wait for the happiness that I long for, but I should be a happy person and treasure every moment that I have. And I am seeing how you live up to your own philosophy of life everyday. I might not truly understand everything you were trying to tell me but I believe I will get it in time.

The Chinese says “no feast on earth will last forever” and I knew this day would come. You have been a good mentor, entertainer, joker, colleague, housemate, brother and a very very good friend. I sincerely thank you for coming into my life and I am going to miss you when you are not around.

Hope I can see you soon in the near future and I wish you all the best in your future undertaking.

Good bye.

Yours truly,

Dennis