I met Thea at INQUIRER.NET when we were on different teams and weren't really friends. Thanks to Yahoo, she became one of my very best friends.
I enjoyed those early 20s at Yahoo. We were trying to navigate the grown-up, slightly more corporate-than-news work life, in an internationally diverse organization.
We weren't driving our own cars back then and our daily commute home was always an adventure. We were earning ok, but luxuries needed to be planned, and that on its own was a different kind of fun.
Thea and I were once at lunch with colleagues from different Southeast Asian countries. It was at a very fancy hotel in Singapore, and when they served a pork dish that looked and tasted like mechado, we said our moms could make it at home and when they served meringue for dessert, we made fun of it and said, "eh me-reng-ge (the Filipino pronunciation of the French dessert) lang to eh." I think of that when I need a laugh.
At some point, we both became grown-ups. We were more serious about what we do at work and making decisions. While most people talk to mentors or someone older than them who've seen it all, I found it equally healthy to talk to someone going through something similar, and that was Thea for me.
If someone were to look at our conversations, they would read like a rollercoaster of messages – from grown-up chats to the most hilarious Jollibee memes. When the going gets tough and I just need a moment to breathe, I know I'll always have a friend in Thea who will take me back to my early 20s, and just like that, I'll be reminded of how far we've come.