As many of you know, when I first started working at the Korean Mission to the UN, there was another speechwriter her, whom I’ll call C. C had started just a couple of weeks before me, and he was not particularly happy here. With his master’s degree in international affairs, he wanted to be doing something more concrete and more noble. Eventually he had a mental breakdown and stopped coming to work, leading over many months to his firing and replacement by Allen, an altogether more stable guy.
Sometime during his tenure, there was a bit of an office switch: I moved from a shared space with Young to C’s old office, and C moved upstairs to a similar office on the 10th floor. I don’t think the increased isolation did him much good.
Anyway, today I found a very old Post-It note wedged between the radiator and the wall. In a man’s handwriting, it says:
Work to use more:
- Moreover
- Commend, concur, is evidenced, emphasize, we note with concern, nevertheless
- We are of the view
- In this regard
Knowing how frustrated C was by the formal, repetitive nature of our job, I find this note incredibly sad. Poor guy.