My Girl Is Gone!

Here's a funny story. When I first started at my job three years ago, I was hired as a temp. A few months after I started, they brought another girl, Clarissa, into our male-dominated team and she was hired on full-time, which infuriated me (nevermind that we had completely different skill sets and I can see how her mad skills got her hired on in a different role).

Because of this, I didn't want to be friends and instead never spoke to her and referred to her as "The Real Girl." In fact, at one point, I thought to myself, "Here I am being stubborn. Watch us become such good friends that I put her in my wedding one day. HA!" Then, as if to punish me, the higher ups put us together in a cubicle and let us fight to the death. Actually, we did share a cubicle, but after weeks of frosty behavior (mainly from me), we started to bond over silly things: The song, "Call Me Maybe" and Grumpy Cat were two of our big loves. From that point on, we were lunch partners for life. Well, at least for the next few years. Geez, has it been that long???

Flash forward to the present and in the past year we went to her wedding, she was in our wedding, and she was a huge help with all our preparation. Her husband, Seth, is equally cool and they're amazing people. They've also decided to relocate for work to Shanghai for the next few years. On the plus side, the apartment we're moving into belonged to them and I fell in love with it when I first stayed there. On the negative side, I'm losing my lunch companion and my fellow female in the department!

Although they long since separated us, we remained close. I knew this day was coming, but when I actually had to say goodbye to her yesterday, I couldn't stop the tears. Big baby. When I came into work the next day, my screen was covered in hearts - complete with a note saying, "I'll miss you!" I realize she'll be back, we'll still chat, and it's not the end of the world. I can't wait to hear about all of their adventures in Shanghai and know they'll have a great time. Still, I'm going to miss my girl!