Trapped

Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty:

 The day that I finished the Project Proposal.

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just like a dandelion 

i need to let my pieces 

be blown away 

to reach new places.

where i can plant myself 

and start growing.

a new me,

always evolving,

always growing.

― c. r. elliot

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[Five months earlier]

Sipping my fourth cup of coffee, I sat down with a smile etched on my face.

Without a doubt, I am currently overflowing with emotions. I didn’t even care if drinking coffee triggered it but I needed the caffeine since I had been sleep deprived for almost a month. There were days that I had to go to work without sleep, it took a ton of energy out of me and I always ended up sleeping for lunch instead of eating. So after that had happened, I reminded myself to always get a sleep even just for a few hours so my body and brain could function for the entire day.

Because aside from my day at the office, I still work at night at our house. Mostly due to the fact that my task at the office is different. I couldn’t work on my project in the office since I was keeping it a secret from a lot of people. Only Maxwell and Warren knew that I wanted to submit a project proposal. So it was a hectic schedule for me knowing that I’m working two different agendas everyday for the last month.

And at 3 o’clock in the morning today, I can finally say that I’m done with the whole project proposal. The whole outline, the prototype, the software and even the PowerPoint presentation was now done. I know one month is a short amount of time for creating and managing to finish a project proposal but it is just an initial proposal. There was still a lot of encoding and programming that I needed to do once the project had been approved.

I have high hopes that this project proposal would be approved by the higher ups. But first, I needed to tell our head manager about it before I could formally submit it to her superiors.

But first, I needed to sleep.

…

“What’s this?” Maxwell eyed the file in her hand and then averted her gaze to me, I only offered a smile at her in excitement. “Chandy, what’s this?” She asked again, ruining the momentum.

Pouting at her direction, I released a sigh. “Sis, you can open the file and just read the title. Why do you keep on asking?” I joked.

She rolled her eyes then looked at her watch, “I’m running late but okay.” Maxwell muttered then opened the file in her hands. As soon as she read the title, her eyes widened as she turned the pages. 

“You finished it?” She asked, still turning the pages as she scanned the proposal. “Already? In just a month?” She beamed at me, I could see how proud she looked at me.

I nodded at her words, “It’s officially Project Selection Month, I wanted to be right on time. And if I submit it then the panel suggested some revisions, it would be easy for me to do so without having much conflict since I’m ahead of time.” I informed her.

Maxwell knew that I have been waiting for this for such a long time now. I wanted to make a big leap even though I’m still new to the company. I know that there’s a chance that they would turn down my submission but at least I did try. And that’s what matters to me the most.

Knowing that I tried and did my very best.

I will not achieve anything if I don’t start trying and doing things that I love to do. Whenever I don’t do the things I want for myself, I always end up getting very relentless as the thought will always cross my mind. So when I finally made a bold decision, it all happened. I couldn’t stop myself for being an overachiever.

Especially when I know that what I’m developing could help other people. It has always been my inspiration whenever I try to develop software, I don’t do it for the wealth or the recognition; I do it because I want to help people who have it difficult from the rest of us.

 "This is great news, Chandy." Maxwell offered a proud smile at me but immediately frowned upon how the file in her hand is becoming heavy to hold. "But you could at least just send me the soft copy instead of this big hard copy in my hands." She complained and was contemplating whether she'll give it back to me or not.

I laughed at her reaction then reached for the file. "I already emailed it to you. Both the outline and the PowerPoint presentation. You could check them out when you have the time. I bet you'll be one of the judges if ever they would approve of my submission." 

"And I will be—" Before she could finish her words, I joined her as she finished her sentence.

"judging you fair and square." We both said in unison then laughed.

 She gave me a warm hug then spoke. "You'll do great, don't worry." She then released me from the hug and reached for my hand, creating circles on top. Comforting me as she knew that I'm feeling very antsy right now. "For now I need to go to work, I'm really running late." Maxwell had informed, frowning.

"What's the hurry?" I asked when she reached for her car keys. "Warren's going to fetch me in any minutes, you can join us." I told her as I looked over my phone, waiting for a text from Warren.

"And what? Be a third wheel? Uhm, no thanks." Maxwell teased then began walking towards the door. "I have to go. See you at the office." Her clacking heels had invaded the room.

I nodded at her even if she can't see me since her back facing me. "We'll grab lunch together!" I screamed at her.

"Yes we will, Chandy!" She screamed back then exited our house.