Where will you be?

I dreamt last night I was back in time, just like Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future. I was back in the early 60's and peeking at my older sisters' stuff.

And what did I find? You know those little things young girls used to have back then? Autograph! Yes, I think that's what it's called.

According to Wikipedia, an "An autograph is a document written entirely in the handwriting of its author, as opposed to a typeset document or one transcribed by an amanuensis or a copyist; the meaning overlaps with that of the word holograph."

"Autograph also refers to a person's signature. This term is used in particular for the practice of collecting autographs of celebrities. The hobby of collecting autographs is known as philography.

The other autograph, which I refer to here, is a type of a book and in later years, would be called a slum book, in the Philippines. This is probably a baby of America's slam book, which has been described as " a notebook (commonly the spiral-bound type) which is passed among Junior high school students. The keeper of the book starts by posing a question (which may be on any subject) and the book is then passed round for each contributor to fill in their own answer to the question."

For grown men, a slum book maybe called a little black book; just names and telephone numbers and some discreet notes or codes.

Now, massaging my brain some more when I woke up, I saw how it looked. Rectangular-ish or square, and had colorful design, and some even had plastic covering. As I have several sisters, I must have had seen a few of these girlish contraptions of the 50's and 60's.

In these autographs or slum books, you see the owner's friends' profiles such as their name, nickname, address, birthday, school, ambition, motto, crush, etc.

Think. Sign in at http://www.facebook.com/ or http://www.friendster.com/. And what do you see? About Me, View my profile. And what does it say? Name, nickname, birth date, address, schools attended, zodiac sign, favorite music, movie, book, interested in, hobbies, occupation, etc.

Same banana. Just nowadays, due to the power of fiber optics, many more people, in more places you can think of, can sign into one's slum book (autograph of the olden days).

Which brings me to my original question. Where will you be?

This is covered in the area called ambition. Since slum books were common among junior highs, the question, where will you be , refers to five years from now - basically, after you've graduated from college.

In job interviews, where will you be five years from now is a common question from employers. It is a barometer for the HR guy to size up whether you will stay in the company, what your potentials are, are you worth investing on in terms of training, how far you want to grow.

In more personal terms, asking where will you be, means casually, what your plans are for the future, or could plainly be finding your whereabouts, (being nosy) especially among juveniles or chat friends, who accidentally meet up at malls, bars or who knows where.