one thing my dad told me before i moved to work
here was that i’d meet interesting people, people with vastly different stories
and different perspectives. today supported that wholeheartedly. i went out to
lunch with one of my coworkers as he’s leaving us. today or tomorrow will be
his last day. we ate outside on a beautiful wednesday afternoon and had
conversation about culture, politics, careers, and life over a fresh cup of ice
cold water along with a tremendous chicken sandwhich accompanied by fries. he’s
from sudan, but interestingly enough, he got his post doc at the university of
nebraska, which is my birthplace. if you’re reading this you probably already
knew that, but yea. he’s older than i am and more accomplished, so anytime we
talk i always try to soak up free game. after lunch, my boss brought me into
his office and we talked mostly about work for an hour, but towards the end we
spoke on mentors and their importance. i asked him a question and one thing led
to another with him ending the conversation giving me a rundown of how he ended
up where he is now with the company. he’s originally from india, and his story
is incredible. he told me he’s the type of person who believes that with
effort, any obstacle/difficulty can be overcame. that really stuck with me
because i spend so much time focusing on problems rather than solutions. that
went back to the conversation at lunch when my coworker mentioned a book he
read wrote about the mind and how changing our focus can really change our
lives. the example given was a professor asked his students how many people
they’d seen with yellow socks that day. everyone answered none, then that week
their assignment was to look out for people wearing yellow socks. sure enough
by the end of the week, they’d seen several individuals wearing yellow socks.
I know it’s cliché or even obvious to say in order to find something, one must look for it, but rather than looking at the wrong things, perhaps i’ve been walking around with my eyes closed this whole time…
-ratha, 4:22pm, 9.15.21