Lost and Found

Whenever I see a Lost And Found box, I smile and remember a time when a small box like this made a big difference for me.

About six years ago, I was in third year high school and was assigned treasurer for our paluwagan (where a group of persons save a certain amount of money everyday and at the end of the week one of the members is scheduled to "withdraw" the money from the treasurer). One school day I had this bad headache and had to go home. In my hurry, I didn't notice that the wallet I use to keep my friends' money fell from my bag. Luckily I had a separate purse for my personal money so I was still able to commute home, but because of this I was already home when I realized the wallet was lost. Still feeling ill, I was absent from my class the next day. I was sure then that I will never get the wallet back, since I didn't even know where I lost it.

When I went back to school, I didn't know how to tell my friends that I lost the money. It was only a day before my friend is scheduled to get the money from me. My allowance then is not enough to repay the sum of all their money. I was about to go home when I saw this bulletin with the words: Lost and Found. Below was a list of items that were found, nothing specific, but two wallets were listed. If you believe one of these is yours, please see Lost and Found box at the Values Department, it says, and this surprised me. I didn't know until then that we had a Lost and Found box, because I rarely pass by the Values Department.

I went straight there, not really sure if my wallet was returned by someone, but I hoped it was. I was interviewed first by a Values teacher, asking me to describe my wallet and the contents. I told her my wallet was orange and small, that it had a hook that can be used to attach it to my bag with matching color. The contents of the wallet were:

• The money collected for the week


• A list of names of my friends who joined our paluwagan


• Paracetamol tablet


• A note from my friend, Michelle, which had my name on it and listed the latest titles from an Evanescence album.

I guess the Evanescence note saved me then, since no one could ever have guessed what was written on the note other than the owner. Anyway, they said that they paged for anyone who lost the wallet right away, but I'm sure I was on the way home by that time. When they saw the medicine they guessed that the owner might be sick and went home, which was right. So I got my wallet back, and you can guess I was too happy about it. From then on I made sure I'll return anything I found on that Lost and Found box, or tell other people about it when they found something lost.