When I stepped into office for the first day this year, I was in fear. Fear of how I was going to cope, fear of putting on a brave front, fear of dealing with everything.
The moment they saw me, they laughed teasingly, "Why the long face!", assuming it's a bout of Monday blues.
I opened my laptop, and tried to log into the encrypted start-up page.
But I couldn't remember my password, as hard as I could tried. I keep on typing various versions of the password I vaguely remember, but the error message kept on popping up. I was getting frustrated. Everything in my life is going wrong, and even Safeboot wants to bully me? I felt like crying.
They started crowding around me. Asking me about my holiday back home. Laughing at my forgetfulness for not remembering my password. Then I told them. They didn't say anything else. They did look a little shocked, but they kept quiet. If they had any questions, they kept them to themselves.
I managed to log in, but I had to change my password on the spot. I typed in a password, and Safeboot rejected it for 'wrong formatting' reasons. I typed furiously, trying different permutations, but Safeboot continued to return error messages. One of them grabbed my laptop for me, and typed in a password for me.
Safeboot accepted it.
I asked him, "What did you type?? You have to let me know! Else I can't log in in the future!"
He took a piece of yellow post-it, and scribbled on it.
"There, here's the password."
I glanced at it.
It says "Happy2010".
He stuck it on my laptop screen. "Nah, so you will remember".
And now, every morning, when I open my laptop, the first thing that I see is the yellow note staring back at me.
"Happy 2010"
Every morning, in order for me to log in my laptop, I have to remind myself, because I have to type out the words.
Slowly, surely, I am getting there.
'Cause "Happy 2010"?
I sure hope so.
