Back in 2011...

Be nice whenever possible. Live with no guilt.

Below is what I wrote of my 'once-annoying' colleague.

I use 'once-annoying' because I no longer find him as annoying as before.
People may not change, but our view on them could.

MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 2011

annoying brat

Last week,

He came to me with an opened stapler in his hand.

Stretched out his hand so that the stapler could catch my attention.

Obviously, the stapler was bullet-less.

We both said nothing.

I looked straight into his eyes, as expressionless as I could.

He looked at the stapler, waved the stapler at me.

I shook my head indicating 'I don't bloody have bullets for you'.

He continued waving, indicating 'I need bullet now'.

Unwillingly, I gave my one and only bar of bullets to him.

From when he came to my desk with an empty stapler till he left with a loaded one, there was no spoken word between us.

In a discussion,
He wanted to flip the set of drawings but his hands were too short to reach the flipping edge.
He stretched his arm out, 5cm short.
He said nothing.
He asked for no help.
He rested his outstretched hand on the drawing until I lifted my hand to help him flip.

How ego can an egoist be?

How hard is it to walk to the stationery room?
How hard is it to stand up and reach for the edge of the drawings?

How much effort is needed to say 'Please'?

As I sat in the discussion room today, I told myself to smile and BE NICE despite the many conflicts we had throughout the duration of the project.

I found that it's easy to be nice. Difficult to smile.

This person lets me realise how 'disgusting' it is to be someone of his character.

I simply believe, a person like him happens for a reason.
He triggers me to think about whether this is the kind of job I wanted.

He allows others to learn from his mistakes.

We learned without having to commit the mistakes ourselves.
We really have to thank him, but silently - to prevent feeding him with more ego.

It's hard to force a smile, I'll try to be nice though.