Feel good moments

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve been working in research for almost six years. Over this period, I have seen many students come and go. Occasionally, we bump into each other on campus, but usually once they are finished with their rotation, dissertation, or semester they move on to other things.

Yesterday, a student I worked with dropped by the lab to say “Hello.” She was a grad student when we met and now she has finished her PhD and is attending medical school. News of our department’s unstable situation had reached her and she wanted to see how I was doing. I was touched by her visit. Here at the U, I am very low on the totem pole, so it’s nice to see that I had an impact.

Anyone care to share moments that gave you the warm fuzzies?

2

Parents evening at my daughter’s school last week; usually, we have to sit there and listen to the teachers saying bland things about her being slightly below average in ability, lacking motivation, being easily distracted, etc.

This time, they were positively glowing; she’s just had her year 6 mock SATs and she came out way ahead of nearly everyone else - to the extent that she’s almost into the expected level of attainment for the next yeargroup. To my shame, my gut reaction was “uh-oh; measurement error!” (well, I was conditioned not to expect this by all the previous years’ outcomes), but no - the teachers all said they had definitely noticed a significant upturn in her quality of work, her ability, her interest, etc.

3

Anybody saying “thanks” is always great :slight_smile: Anybody saying thanks for things like “convincing my parents to let me study what I want and not what they want”, I’d invite myself out for pizza. Or people telling me, years after that one tutoring session we had once when they were in high school, that if it hadn’t been for the skills they learned in that one afternoon they might never have ended up studying the major they just graduated with. I’ve had similar experiences with some of my own teachers, who sometimes didn’t even remember the detail that changed my life because they did it as a matter of fact.

4

I think I agree with you, Nava. I tutored for a few quarters here at college and when someone comes up a year later and says “well, I passed that math I was having trouble with, and then it clicked and I’m doing good, so I stuck it out for 4 more classes and have a math minor now. Thanks for the help” it’s the best feeling in the world (well, second best…heh)

Brendon

5

Being asked to write a recommendation for your teacher feels pretty good, too. :smiley: Out of all the students this woman taught, I was the one she asked for a letter of recommendation when she was up for an award.

6

Umm… it’s nothing compared to y’alls stories, but I had a great cheeseburger yesterday and, for a brief period, it made me feel that everything was right with the world.

7

Friday last, we’d just finished a big meal with our close friends and their 5 yr old daughter.

They are great friends to us and their child is an enchantment to me, we are great together as we both love to play and play.

We were just finishing up a big spaghetti dinner followed by tea and pie. The little one had grown bored with adult conversation, and moved onto the hardwood floor between her Mom and I, playing with her paper dolls quietly and contentedly.

We were a study in contentedness, finishing up our wine and discussing one of our favorite topics, well mine anyway; One day getting a pickup with a camper back thingy and striking out to see some of this beautiful country that I’ve yet to reach.

The conversation became quite animated as I tried to convince my Mr just how much fun it could be, ground we’ve covered before. He’s not for it, convinced any form of ‘trailer’ will attract toothless banjo pickers and their ilk. We were laughing and joking and I was saying, ‘It would be fun’, and my friend was asking, ‘Where would you go?’, yada, yada, you get the idea.

When out of the clear blue, with the sincerity that only a child’s voice can convey, she eagerly interjected herself into the quickly moving adult conversation to add;

“I would miss you very much!”

I had no choice but to clutch my heart and swoon with the joy of it! :smiley:

It seemed like that room, in that moment, could not possibly contain another drop of pleasure.

8

I was a Girl Scout leader and camp counselor in the 1980s. A couple of years ago, a young woman came up to me in the grocery store and greeted me by name. I didn’t recognize her at first, since she had been eight years old the last time I’d seen her: she was one of my Scouts, all grown up. She told me how much it had meant to her that I had encouraged her artistic talents, since her parents always disparaged such things as being “silly.” The little girl who had been so clever with fingerpaints and yarn animals and origami had grown up to be a prize-winning illustrator of children’s literature. I was so happy that I felt a warm, glowy feeling for hours, as if I’d had a swig of brandy.

9

Had one of those big meetings this morning with The Big Dogs in attendance. I received some rather lavish praise for a project I spearheaded and finished ahead of schedule.

:cool:
Auto - I love the nice, warm-blanket feeling after polishing off a nice cheeseburger. I’ve been there myself. :slight_smile:

10

It’s not only the cheeseburger. Today, I had a “supersub” from the local pizza shop…

I can’t help but think if everyone had one of these once a week, there would be no more wars…

Brendon

11

A few weeks ago we had a woman come into the ER - recovering IV drug user, no veins whatsoever, polite but definitely not pleasant (she also had a splitting headache). I started to try to warm up an area in her shoulder to get some blood, but I also offered her the option of my drawing the labs through fingerstick, which she said she’d prefer. So I warmed up her finger and sat down on a stool next to her.

Drawing blood by fingerstick takes a while because you have to “milk” the finger to get the blood out, so we had lots of time to chat. She talked about being in recovery after 20 years of addiction (I think she had a few years under her belt). She told me about the college program she’s in, and how she wakes up at 3:30 every morning to study before school. She showed me her school ID, and told me about the people she hangs out with. I told her how I’m in school too, and about my classes, and what I want to be when I grow up, etc.

At the end of this 10-15 minute period, she was totally pleasant, totally chatty, and telling me how I’m going to be the Best Doctor Evar. (I can’t take all the credit; they gave her some Dilaudid before I started.) I promised that if there was anything wrong with the labs I’d come recollect them and she really liked that idea. So I thanked her and left.

I was filling out paperwork at the nurse’s station when her nurse came out and said, “I think you made her day.” She pretty much made mine.