People Come, People Go

Friday, December 30, 2005

People Come, People Go

My co-worker is leaving us today. He is on his way to live and work in city out on the west, where he can be close to his loved one. That's a pretty common consideration. In fact, there is nothing uncommon about M except his loved one is his boyfriend. And M is very open about it.

I remember one summer, a gay Pride Parade took place in our city over the weekend. M took a day off on Monday. Everybody in the office was passing around a newspaper that carried a photo of M and his boyfriend. On there, they were walking down the street in their skimpy brief in the crowd. Somehow, we all agreed that we were not going to mention to him the fact that we all saw what we saw... The next morning, in the inbox, everybody got a message distributed from M with an attachment. It was that very photo from the newspaper. Talk about who should be embarrased for what?!

Every time when M came back from his vacation, there would always be some people who came over to his desk (next to mine) and asked, curiously and cautiously, "so, how is your friend?" M would go, "my boyfriend? He is fine. We had awesome time..." That’s the kind of person M is. He is extremely talented. He is gay. He is open about it. And now he is to be missed.