Friendly Faces, Part 2

I had just decided to which company I would sign my life away. Mom and I were having dinner when she told me, "You have a cousin at CompanyM. His father is my godbrother."

Excuse me??

And she proceeded to tell me about this godbrother of hers, of whom she had never spoken previously. I didn't even know of his existence until that day. She didn't find out my cousin's name until after I had started working. Looking him up in the company directory, I discovered that he was in the same group as I was!

I hadn't met him yet, but it was interesting how I changed that day. Each time he sent an e-mail, I took notice of it. Each person I passed whose name I didn't know, I wondered if they were my cousin. Whenever I walked through the cubicle farm to talk to someone, I looked at all the names on the way to see if I could find his seat. I wondered what this faceless cousin of mine was like.

It wasn't until the company group dinner that I finally found out when fellow employees were toasting with wine and my manager called his name out. A face! A face to the name!

So then I had to find a chance to approach him and introduce myself. I didn't think that, "Hi! I'm your cousin!" would cut it; I wasn't even sure if he knew of my mom (it's complicated). Between lack of opportunities (he was often out of the office at customer sites) and me being busy with work and forgetting, it was over a month before he approached me when I was talking to someone else! His parents had told him that weekend of my existence (revealed through my aunt).

So we've been exchanging a few e-mails, just gathering bits of information to get to know each other. Very nice person, quiet. He's the youngest of three, but still older than my brother; not surprising since his father is about 10 years older than my mom.

His parents have just moved up to Taipei county, so I may finally meet them sometime. It's like finding out I have a whole new family. Can't wait.