Committed to Memory

Through sheer coincidence, I found that a high school classmate worked for a law firm which offered me an internship position. When I called her up, she snubbed me. Imagine two people from the same little city in central China and went to the same high school and same uni and remained friends for a while and lost touch after uni. Who would've thought that we may meet in a Chinese law firm in Sydney? You might imagine that she would be as excited as me. Well, no. I sensed the snubbing on the phone. So though I got her mobile number and said that I would call her when she's free, I only sent her an sms. In reply, she sent me a polite and courteous sms advising that she would get in touch when she's free. So when I asked her (via sms) if she wanted to put a day in November for a girls night and welcomed her to visit us at any time. she simply said "ok, best wishes." Translated in Chinese mannerism, the whole exchange of smses means "get lost, you idiot!" (lol, you wouldn't have guessed that being polite can also be rude in Chinese culture.) I deleted her contact and messages and put away my short-lived excitement.

Whilst feeling uncomfortable, I'm not bearing a grudge (except maybe a slight-temporary grudge). After all, I remembered her as an intelligent, hardworking and friendly girl. Given that we had a small friendship in high school and still visited each other in uni, I thought she would be as excited to find me. Did she have something to hide? Did she dislike me? Or did she simply dislike any old acquaintances? I'm a simple and loving person. But I understand that I live among a variety of personalities. So encounters like this may happen. And when it happens, put aside the discomfort and commit the beauties of our Yuanfen (缘分) to my memory.

The unexpected result that came out of this encounter was that I decided not to take the internship. It's not at all because I wanted to shun her or she to me. The reason is that when I browsed the company's website where I found her profile. I realised that after she studied law for 4 years in China and went on to get a doctorate in a Uni in rural QLD, she only landed a job in this Chinese-only law firm in Chinatown. I wouldn't say that it's a testament to her capability. It's actually a result of strategic planning. And for me, I never wanted to enter a small practice...this whole get-an-internship-anywhere thing was purely whimsical! The irony is: had I not come across her, I would've gone straight into an unpaid internship at a firm I never wanted to work for. And that would be an unwise use of time. My strategic planning is that 1. get top academics; 2. enter competitions; 3. clerkship in leading firms only. And this needs to be committed to my memory too.