A Farewell Lunch I Wish I Never Had to Organise

A email I just received in the inbox brought tears (complete with a box of my weakness - Royce chocolates on my table) ... ...

"To my RO and the hottest mum @ BA  - Christy, thank you for your guidance, both professionally and personally. Your passion is really inspiring. And it's really great that I met someone who love shoes and fashion as much as me :D You have been a wonderful boss to me!"

We had the farewell lunch for W this afternoon and yours truly had the honour of organising it, wish very much that I didn't have to. 

Recall W joined us slightly less than a year ago and since then, life has never been the same. There was finally someone who shared my atypical dress sense and love for high heels. Known as the "Lims on Heels", we love pants, fitting skirts, pretty dresses, tank tops (with jackets on in class of course) and not forgetting matching eye shadows. Nay-sayers of our dress sense are aplenty, but with W, I was not alone. Over lunch or along corridors, our conversations would always start off with where to get that pair of heels or for that matter clothes or accessories before moving on to work stuff. We had even taken pictures of our heels side by side as well! 

Not only do we have similar views on the use of games, activities and social media to engage students, W's drive also brought to fruition many initiatives to harness social learning. A class Facebook identity and associated info-graphics activity to link 400 students on a common platform, building interactive game platforms for the annual National Accounting Quiz (which saw close to 800 participants) revitalising a dated card game to an on-line BINGO form, and as her parting gift, an iPhone application to help students in the review of the journal entries for their weakest topic. Where would we be without her?

Though labelled as "Bimbos" by many (W and I are at least a decade apart in terms of age so to be labelled with her as such is an honour), we have more than proven them wrong with our drive and results. More than a breath of fresh air, she brought back memories and reminded me of myself years back when I first joined the academia, full of youth, passion, energy and drive, although of course I can no longer keep up with W now. Of all W's positive traits, I appreciated her straight-talking style most, telling me on the face when she disagreed or when presenting other alternatives. Needless to say, W is miles ahead of yours truly in terms of technical competency as well.

It sucks when team members resign under your watch, it sucks even more when that happens to be a super performer. To be honest, when W tendered her resignation months ago, it was the lowest of the lows that I had to work through. Hours were spent reflecting on what could I have done differently, what could have gone wrong and to be frank I nearly called it quits as well. But now, I am happy that she's able to explore other opportunities at an age where I could no longer turn the clock back to. I have no doubts that she will soar like an eagle no matter where she is. It leaves me now to wish her only the very best.