The Good and the Bad

The Good

Whenever I make a new friend it leaves me pleasantly surprised probably because I am shy by nature and take my time to get to know people. For quite some months after joining NCL I barely talked to my labmates. I remember Sophy telling me once how then the guys used to feel hesitant to ask to me to join the group for tea in canteen. Things have ofcourse been entirely different for ages now. Not a day goes by without them teasing me... pulling my leg... calling me by my petname.

What surprises me more is when with some people I feel an instant connection. A simple exchange of emails or a couple of hours spent on the ym seems to do the trick.

What surprises me still more is when friendship comes from a place where I would never have gone but it was chance that took me there or some kind of luck that brought it to me.

I'd read a quote somewhere "laughter is the shortest distance between two friends". By whatever route I may have made my friends its the sharing and caring that has on each occasion been responsible for keeping us close.

The Bad

These days I seem to have rediscovered my sense of competition. When I read that one of my colleagues had won a best poster award at a conference I found myself saying I want that too. A labmate of mine who joined around the same time as me has recently got a paper published and I find myself saying that I'd better get a positive response from the journal to which I've sent my paper. Next Friday we are having a musical nite at NCL in which I am going to sing as I'd done in 2006. As much as I enjoy singing I am looking forward to getting even with one of the participants who had been praised last year for having "a steady voice".

While all these seem to motivate me to do better, I don't find myself feeling good about it.