Today, exactly one year ago was just another day for me. There was nothing remotely significant about this day last year when I was volunteering as a Sports Assistant at UniGames (I suppose that was significant but then again it was a "week long gig"). Barely 3 months later, 9 months ago, that would have changed (forever I thought then - I dare not say forever now). I still remember when you first told me about perfect numbers (a number where all the proper factors of the number adds up to the number itself). The memory of that moment comes to me as bright as day. We were at the beach (I even remember the position of which we were standing) having one of our many endless talks. Perfect numbers. Such a fascinating thought that there really are such things as perfect numbers (which sounds in itself...perfect) and happy numbers* (ah, and together with happy numbers, happy primes) and also sexy numbers (though that I won't go into). To think that someone, somewhere came up with these terminologies makes me chuckle even now.
You elaborated then that the first perfect number is 6 (proper factors of 6 i.e. 1, 2, and 3 adds up to the number itself: 1+2+3=6 and hence, it is a perfect number). The next is 28.
Ever since you told me about these perfectly perfect numbers, I find myself drawn to the numbers 6 and 28 more than any other numbers. Even more than the numbers themselves, since that day on the beach last December, I've looked forward to today (28 September): your birthday.
It hasn't even been a year since our talk at Scarborough and yet the universe has turned itself on my vision of how today was going to be like. For so many months I've imagined this day, having different scenarios played out in my mind but never once had I thought it would be this.
Now that you're no longer by my side, today has again turned to be yet another day on the calender although not entirely. When I woke up, I still knew today was different, remembered that it would have been different. So, when I trudged to uni on study break week to meet up with my group to work on our group project, while everyone was getting settled and was busying themselves with getting organised, I sat there thinking about how this day was different and quite suddenly proclaimed to the room at large, "Hey, today is a perfect number day."
In all those months when I had today played out in my head, in all the different scenarios, the one constant was I knew I would've said exactly that to you and in that moment when I finally said it, not to you but to people I've only just met not a month ago, I knew that I would never again get to utter that one simple sentence to you and make it mean like how it would have meant months ago and that filled me with a momentary lapse of sadness.
In all those months when I had today played out in my head, in all the different scenarios, the one constant was I knew I would've said exactly that to you and in that moment when I finally said it, not to you but to people I've only just met not a month ago, I knew that I would never again get to utter that one simple sentence to you and make it mean like how it would have meant months ago and that filled me with a momentary lapse of sadness.
And then...
...and then the day went on.
Happy birthday, Adrian.
A memory from a lifetime ago:
"Is there anything more perfect than lying on the grass watching the stars with your bestest friend in the universe? Though you might think of a few, I can't think of a single one atm." - 01/12/10, 00:31
*A happy number is any number which reduces to one when you take the sum of the square of its digits and you continue iterating until it yields one. A happy prime is a number which is both happy and prime.
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