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“You should have gotten yourself a girlfriend first before you come here.” That, dear readers, was what my colleague told me. Not wanting to sound too regretful, I calmly replied, “Aiya, you think so easy meh?” You may wonder why my colleague told me that. In my company, everyone has to go to sites pretty often within a year. For my department in particular, luckily (or unluckily - depends on how you look at it!), we don’t have to be on the move so often. But the thing is, we can be stuck in a foreign land long enough for us to have a brief fling. Whoops I can’t believe I said that. It was only a figure of speech, okay?

Some of us have to work our asses off at sites. Sometimes, I heard, we may even need to work 7 days a week! Like most projects in every company, time is a luxury. And I was warned that our time away can stretch for as long as 6 months, sometimes even longer. All these traveling, therefore, will leave us engineers with little time for anything else - say, dating. My friend said something like “Act quickly… or else, be prepared to be a 40-year old bachelor.” Guys, if this doesn’t sound worrisome to you, you probably have about 70% of Brad Pitt’s looks. Unless of course, you’ve already secured yourself a soulmate - like what my colleague (the one who warned me all these things) did.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend his wedding reception. I tried not to think about all his warnings and enjoyed myself that night. And I did. My table had 7 ladies, and I was among the 3 guys (vastly) outnumbered. I really admired this colleague (the groom) of mine. At 26, he’s begun to settle down - something that many men can only do after hitting 30 years old. He married his high school beau and had hundreds of friends and relatives invited to the dinner. Heck, even a new colleague who has only known him for about 3 months was also invited! I was elated when he handed me the invitation card - no not because I could finally give an angpow for the first time in my life, but because I actually felt a sense of belonging in the company.
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