When I first started work in the laboratory here, my relationship with the autoclave lady was pretty doomed. She is a perfectionist in her job and I didn’t exactly know her way. Thus she always came up to me telling me the proper way of putting the used flasks, how I should be quick enough to collect my stuff sent for autoclaving yada yada. Fine, it should not be a big deal; but the problem is I never understood what she wanted because she doesn’t speak much English, hence I kept repeating the same mistake or I would make different mistake that upset her. I had her talking out loud to me at the corridor when she confronted my mistakes! Every passerby stared at me with sympathy.

Was I irked about her? Not really. I was just a bit scared of her. But still whenever I see her, I would just smile and tried say hello. Someone did come to me and told me not to take her reactions too personally since she just wanted to do a perfect job. And I absolutely agree with that statement.

Now almost every time I bump into this lady at the corridor, we’ll both say hello to each other in a passionate and warmth way (note: she’s Italian and I’m well-known for my craziness, which really explain well). She usually gives me a big hug and I usually will “flirt” with her although she responds in English. But who cares? We’re having so much fun.

We have a few old technicians who are pretty serious and sometimes make mean comments to us, students. We don’t particularly like to have any connection with them. When we see them walking towards us, we would try to avoid going up. Now you can probably see how not pleasant it is. One day, while I was doing some work and one of these old serious technicians came into the room. I instantly was standing on guard and be prepared to listen to her mean comment. Surprise, surprise…she didn’t, instead she started chatting with me complaining about someone leaving the measuring area messy. That was so unbelievable. Yesterday, I even found her talking with another guy and when I walked in, I sort of joined in their conversation too. She seemed nice.

There is no doubt that none of us like to have a doom relationship with anyone. But I do believe that there is a reason for each individual’s behavior. I tend to just stay away from them, not because of hatred, but more because I don’t want to get into trouble. Keep an open heart; who knows that person will be nice when they are in better mood?