What is the most gratifying compliment you ever received ?
Mine was when I returned here after many years spent in the US, and met an American woman who, on being introduced, said to me “you speak real American”. It wasn’t an empty compliment, I knew she meant it. I felt it like a reward for my love of languages.
(Oh no! my English is not perfect, by far. I still have a slight accent that sticks to me like a tag: this guy is a foreigner)
After a heated argument at work someone said that arguing with me was “like shooting bullets at a sponge.” I asked what he meant and he said that I never seem to take offence at anything, that “no-one can ever draw blood.”
It sounds cool and I have never heard the phrase before or since.
Although on reflection maybe it was an insult!?
My baby son was in the hospital recently being treated for dehydration due to rotavirus. Which basically meant I spent two days sitting in their crummy recliner, holding him while he received IV fluids.
On the second morning one of the nurses came in and said to me “You’re a really good mom. We can feel it.”
“Nice ass.”
After being picked on for my appearance for years, this one was very welcome.
In 1981, I published a brief humorous article in a monthly periodical. A few weeks later, the editor of the magazine informed me that she’d received a letter from Isaac Asimov praising the piece. Needless to say, I just glowed all over.
I was helping a co-worker do something fairly complicated from home via the phone. I talked him through some things that go far beyond his ordinary level of expertise. At the end he said ‘Peter, you’re a fucking genius’. That one kinda felt good.
I live in a low-income apartment complex. Twice a year we have HUD inspections, when the manager has to take the inspectors around inside every single apartment on site. She told me once that I have the nicest apartment in the whole place, it’s so nicely decorated and clean. I work very hard on making my home nice and comfy and cozy, and her telling me that really meant something to me. Kind of makes all my hard work worth it.
My high school history teacher called me an iconoclast. Yes he meant it as a compliment. Yes, I took it as one (would have even if he hadn’t meant it that way :D).
My first true love. We had been going out for a while, then we sort of drifted apart. Well, mostly he did. So I stuck around (not hard as we still had the smae friends) and let him know I didn’t feel any different. Eventually we got back together and his comment to me was…“You’re true.”
I started out shooting pictures for this local newspaper. I gradually drifted into writing (reviews and such). My editor told me “You know, you need to do more of this. You can write.” You know the quote about how you’re a writer when someone else says you are? Well, he said it. Not that I have done as much about it as I should have :o .
I’m not sure it was the most gratifying ever, but i got a compliment last week that made me feel somewhat pleased with myself.
I’m teaching an American intellectual history course at a local college, and i had my students fill out a mid-term evaluation of the course. I asked them for feedback on the course content, the course structure, and my own performance as a teacher.
I got some constructive criticism, and i also got some nice compliments about my lecturing and my knowledge of the subject matter. But, in a course that has to spend a lot of time looking at the significance of religion in American history and thought, i think the most gratifying comment i got was “Unbiased in matters of religion.”
As a committed atheist, i felt pretty good about that.
I have two. Once I was having a bad day at school, I wasn’t wearing any makeup, I was probably on my period and just feeling generally crappy. I walked into the cafeteria and some woman I didn’t know said right out loud, “You look just like Catherine Zeta-Jones!” I told her she was an angel.
The other I was taking my final for Latin 101. Our prof. was this wonderful guy, he had done some of his grad work at Cambridge and would cuss people out in Old Welsh. Anyways, the final was an oral off the top of your head translation which I passed well. He told me, “You are very gifted with language”. Coming from someone that knew so many, I took it as a tremendous compliment.
I got my nicest one the other day. Upon finishing my flight test (yay, I’m finally a licenced private pilot) My examiner said this:
“Your abilities exceed your confidence.” “You’re a good pilot”
Some would consider this an insult… Not me.
The compliment I will remember for the rest of my life:
“Your parents must be extremely beautiful people.”
“You’re not all that disgusting.”
The one I find most gratifying is: “Hmm, good question.”
Every boyfriend I’d ever had in the past has always said to me, when I complained about my looks: “Honey, I’m not a shallow man, I think you are gorgeous.” For some reason, this just always left me feeling emptier still. Until one day, I heard the one compliment that made me feel like a million bucks:
From my gay friend Adam: “Sweetie, let me tell you something. I am very shallow, and I think you are the most striking woman I’ve ever seen.”
It was over-the-top, I blushed profusely, because I didn’t need that much cheering up, but when he said it, I knew for certain he meant it. He’s a blunt man. He’s made many women cry without regret.
I don’t believe the compliment, however, I know that he meant it. Those are the ones that stay with me.
A few days after I gave my two week notice at my last job, a VP who was my general manager for years came to the building and was giving some customers a tour. He broke off from the group and came over to me and said he heard I was leaving. He shook my hand, said he was sorry I was going and if I felt the grass wasn’t greener elsewhere to call him and he would always give me a job.
I can’t post the most gratifying compliment, but one I got yesterday will do. One of my former debate students just landed a $60K a year job with T-Mobile based on her skills as a public speaker and presenter. She came by class yesterday to tell me, and to say “Thanks.” 
Two: First, hanging around a coffeeshop and shooting the breeze with classmates last spring: “You know, Tracy, you’re funny. I mean, I think a lot of your jokes are over my head, but the way you say them is funny.”
Second, after a Saturday night performance of “The Philadelphia Story” at my community theater, an old-ish woman and her husband were waiting by the stage door for me. She said, “Dear, I just had to let you know: I thought you were just as good as Katharine Hepburn, and prettier.” I was glowing for weeks!
Once I sent an unsolicited writing sample to White-Wolf (a roleplaying game publishing company, for those who don’t know), and Justin Achilles himself wrote back in my e-mail, saying, “Wow. You can obviously write,” and offered me a chance to make a book proposal.
That was cool. Seriously cool.
I met Yo-Yo Ma when I was in 6th grade (through an ushering programme) and had only been playing 'cello for a year. He let me play a bit of a piece I’d been learning on his 'cello and afterward said, “Lovely tone. You should keep playing.” I nearly floated out of the theatre that night!
And just recently, my course co-ordinator and research partner offered me the chance to take his PhD research to the next level, saying, “You’re the only person I trust with this.” And then he needed my help figuring out why the molecule he was analysing was fluorescing. That was incredible - he’s incredibly intelligent and a very gifted chemist, and knowing that he trusts me over all the people he has done research with out at very high-profile labs … wow. Wow!