Murphy’s law kicks in but holidays are coming...
The power of your mind is crazy, I’m really coming to realise that your mindset is everything. Despite that sounding like every ‘new year, new me’ article you have ever seen, I am not about to go into some crazy motivational rant about how you can change the world. I’ll leave that to Pixar. This is just an everyday person starting the week thinking the world is against her, running on zero sleep, things going wrong willie nillie... Pretty much the same as everybody else from time to time, am I right?
One thing I have learned in the past ten days is how to laugh and not take myself too seriously. Also, wishing the ground would swallow you whole doesn't work. So it started with my getting locked in the work bathroom. Walked in, locked the door only to find the handle was broken and someone had decided to do a DIY job and just threw it back together. As soon as I locked it, I knew it wasn’t opening again. Great. Now I can’t stand people who bring their phone to the bathroom so I don't do it. Luckily, I had my Apple watch so I was able to text some people who were in the office. Even luckier that none of them checked their phones. So after some knocking and shouting, I eventually got out. Laughed it off, mortified but we move on.
On the second day, I was sitting in the office typing away when my director brought some partners in to introduce them to us. Unfortunately, nobody said hello and got back to their work. We had to stand up and shake hands, all that fun stuff. I froze, hugs, kisses, one cheek, two cheeks, none? Each person I meet out here does something different. I went for a greeting kind of hug, it’s what everyone else did. I got it wrong, it was two cheeks and there were three people. Six kisses, how do these people get anything done? Now I don’t know who went for the kiss on the cheek, but I am 99.9% sure I did not initiate it. Later as I was eating my baguette and chatting at lunch, the director came down and told me not to kiss partners when they come to the office.
“Gladly,” I responded.
Sassy I know, but I wanted him to know that it wasn't the most comfortable thing for me either. Some colleagues rushed to my defence, saying they would have done the same. Others said it was inappropriate and a few laughed. I was among the ones laughing, with a big red face of course.
So you get the jist, the week progressed with my leggings tearing at the gym, customers skipping the bill at work, spilling a tray of drinks across myself and the zipper on my jeans breaking in public and,to top it all off, Axa Insurance decided to tell me my insurance was due for renewal. There's Black Friday shopping out the window. At each of my micro-events, I laughed but on the inside I was dying of embarrassment.
On Friday, I found myself bogged down in work. I was so focused I didn’t even hear my fellow intern coming into the room. Saturday was her birthday, so earlier in the day I went to the shop and bought her a chocolate muffin and candles. She is such a special person, so bubbly and friendly - I am so glad I will leave here first because my experience wouldn’t be the same without her. She was leaving to go to the city centre and asked if I wanted to come. Initially I said no, I wanted to get some work done. I then remembered her telling me that all her flatmates were gone travelling and she was alone for her birthday, so I went. I was so glad I did. The Christmas markets had just begun, we chatted about everything and anything and strolled to Grand Place. The area was packed. Suddenly there was a countdown from ten. We realised what was happening – the Christmas lights were being switched on. This was followed by the most spectacular light show I have ever seen. We both agreed on how lucky we were to come up at those exact seconds.
I returned to the office later in the evening with a new mindset. Excited for Christmas, not for gifts and all the commercial rubbish, but to spend time with my family and friends. At the same time, I realised how lucky I am to have met such amazing people out here, to see things I would never have dreamed of until I left Ireland and to have the opportunity to learn from my mistakes. I say the last line because the kiss on the cheeks scenario is still fresh in my memory. Next time, I will be true to my Irish roots and give a good hearty handshake and the ‘howrya’ nod. We live and learn.
* Gemma Good is from Killeshandra and a third year journalism student in University of Limerick
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