One sunny afternoon with my colleagues

For one of the rarest times, I enjoyed an afternoon meal and then coffee with my colleagues.

That was yesterday... A Friday. Come to think of it, it was supposed to be a busy day but the schedules were moved and it happened almost all of us in our department were free in the afternoon.

Although the date of the group date was determined a few weeks ago, we didn't expect most of us to actually be free in the afternoon.

We just went somewhere, outside the mall, food was served, afterward, we went ground floor, coffee variants were served.

It was one of the best afternoons of the year.

For one thing, the weather was sunny. There were many people but not too many to make the place crowded.

My mood was good.

And even if I was the one due to publish our learning material for next week, my colleagues told me to do the publishing during the night.

We are still having blended learning in our institution so we meet face-to-face with students a few times a week but they also have a platform for accessing published learning materials.

When we billed out for our meal, one of us jokingly said that we have to eat everything since the food was costly.

So before finally moving to the coffee shop, we first tried to eat whatever we could first. We were laughing. But seriously, I ate most of the leftovers.

We went to the ground floor of the mall where we had our coffee.

The ambiance was so relaxing. We each ordered our coffee and we sat down and talked about things.

It was an opportunity for me to enjoy their company that I was not able to usually feel when we were in work mode.

I guess a deeper bond was made.

Regardless of our differences, regardless of what we have as prejudice or whatever with each other, we still have moments like that of yesterday afternoon and I am eternally grateful for enjoying such again. After a long time.

It was more than half a decade ago when I had a good time with my colleagues. A different set of people back then. But in some way, the groups were similar since we all are in the same discipline.

I just pray that we will eventually get what we deserve for working our butts off in the institution we are in.

I don't let anybody from the group read my articles but let me just express my gratitude--thank you very much!

Photo above from Unsplash, also used as lead image