Why I Wear This Watch ⋆ Szebastian Onne G. S.

Eight Thousand, Nine Hundred and Thirty Days ago, my father was found murdered, wearing this watch.

Today, I will not share with you why I count the days, or how that murder changed our lives.

Instead, I will talk about why I still wear this watch, make sure it works well and looks brand as new.

Most importantly, why, I keep it on the time zone he lived and died in, no matter where in the world I am.

I wear this watch because I picked it out with him, and it was my first ‘Dad, let me style you!’ purchase with him.

He loved watches, pens, cameras, and notebooks (of all kinds, diaries, journals, planners, you name it, but I digress!).

Since the day he bought this watch, on my ‘style recommendation’ being as proud as he was of the teenager he had raised, he practically wore it everywhere, and especially on special occasions, and all other watches had to take a backseat. He just could not stop telling everyone that I picked it out for him and how much he loved my confidence and excitement as we shopped together.

I wear this watch because it reminds me, despite what happened to him, this watch survived, It stopped, right at the time when he was beheaded, murdered, dropped on the ground. As difficult as it was for me not cry, this watch made me feel his presence and the strength he must have had when they murdered him. He sacrificed himself for human rights, for saving thousands of others, for saving his own family, for refusing to budge and bow in front of those who tried everything to stop my family from their Human Rights Activism.

This watch became a mission for me.

It became a reminder of his fearlessness, commitment to making this world a better place for total strangers he did not even know but fought for.

I wear this watch in his time zone, because no matter where I am, it reminds me, what he may have been doing at that moment in his time, when we were together, as a family, Big Partner and Little Partner, living under the command of Boss Partner (as he jokingly called mum).

I wear this watch because this was the closest thing on his skin that still touches me, makes me feel he his holding my wrist by his hands, and saying, ‘Little Partner, you got this, we are in this together!’ as mum looks on, admiring our friendship, the only two friends I have ever had in my life who I can and will call my best friends.

I wear this watch, because it helps me smile, even when it hurts, it helps me hope, even when it feels dark and most of all, it makes me believe that my dad is timeless, forever and right here with me, no matter the shape or form I wish I was able to see him in.

I wear this watch because it is all I have left of him and me moments together and I am trying my best to not let them fade away with years and time.