First Impressions

When we arrived at my workcamp in June, the dirRextor (director named Rex) greeted me and Dan and walked us around to introduce us to everyone. I knew pretty quickly that there probably wouldn't be anyone who got on my nerves (and there wasn't), but I had no idea the bonds I would form.

Most notably, my friendship with Phuong-Hieu. I remember when the diRextor introduced me to her. She was bending over behind a counter and popped her little head up to say hi. When he told me her name, I was a bit lost as to how to say it. She showed my her name tag, on which she'd written a phonetic key, but I was still a bit lost. And I had a hard time understanding what she said when she showed it to me. I figured that while she seemed nice and peppy, I probably wouldn't get very close to her because it was hard to understand her in that initial conversation and our first staff meeting.

I pretty quickly grew accustomed to her accent and could understand her well. Though it took a full day or two before I could say her name without pausing to think it through first. (It's pronounced Fung-Hue. I kept wanting to say Fung-Hwee so I had to mentally correct myself first.) From there, our friendship blossomed quickly, full of sarcasm, fun, and some pen hostages. When we left workcamp, I missed a lot of people, but she topped the list. I told her to move to Colorado, but she thought it would be too cold for her. Tough it out, Phuong-Hieu!

I could've stuck with my first impression and steered clear of her. I could've given up because of a language barrier (and not even really language, she speaks English fine)...but I'm so glad that I got to know her. And steal her pens.

I learned a valuable lesson as I built a great friendship: don't linger in your first impressions. Don't count anybody out, for any reason. You might just be missing out on getting to know a really cool person.