Musing About Past Acquaintances

I completely stole this from The Foundry - Chicago's website.
It's too cute not to share.

I was sitting at my computer thinking about the myriad people I've met throughout my life, and how much I wish some of them had stayed, and how glad I am that some have left me alone. There are always those whom you instantly feel connected to on some level, and some who are instantly repellant.

I remember this one woman who was around my age and who was instantly repellant to every fiber of my being. I met her when I was still figuring out whether I was going to continue working or to go back to college and finish my degree, and she was working on the student newspaper. I was encouraged by my mother go to by the student newspaper and introduce myself, and to ask if I could copy edit a little bit for them.

This woman, I'll call her K, knew who I was before I knew who she was; in fact, how could she not, since my mother and I have similar enough features. I had heard my mother, a communications professor, talk about K a great deal, how talented she was, how much potential she had, her leadership skills, etc. I had been primed to like this woman once I met her, as she sounded like a wonderful person to know... on paper.

K was not thrilled to meet me, however much she had heard from my mother about me. She laid eyes on me and apparently determined that I was a threat, though to whom I would be a threat I still have no idea. She instantly covered up her scowl with a fake smile to make a beauty queen blush and proceeded to talk over me whenever I had a question with one of the writers about how they had worded a particular phrase, and to otherwise ignore me even if I had a direct question for her. I was there to learn, as introduced by Mom, was not a student at the school at that time, and was there to determine if working on the student newspaper was not in my future in some way.

As I was sitting here thinking about how much she seemed to detest my mere existence, the thought came unbidden "She gives a bad attitude a bad name." Have you ever had similar thoughts about anyone you've met?