We do it all the time, everywhere we go. We make up our minds about people we don't know, without bothering to find out more. I'm not talking about making friends or asking them to be your best buddy or anything like that. No, I'm just saying that we should actually have a conversation with the said person before deciding whether they are worth the effort or not.
I came across this guy who happens to train with me for dragon boat racing. Now, truth be told, I resented him joining us in the 1st place already. Plus he seems to have something to say about the training ALL THE TIME. Therefore I was not that over the moon when I found out he was operating the same London flight with me the Sat evening just past.
I didn't come into contact with him during the flight, except for when he came down to say hi during the lull period. We exchanged pleasantries, and I said I'll text him if my team decides to have a Chinese lunch at Bayswater. I really didn't think too much of it afterwards, as I was prepared to crash out while in chilly, wet London.
He bumped into me however, on Sunday. I decided to try out this Nooch-concept restaurant across from the regular crew joint. He haven't had his lunch so we went in and sat at a table for 2.
More pleasantries were exchanged, we chatted about the one common topic that we had; dragon boat racing. As the lunch drawn on, our conversation stretched into work, relationships, and all that jazz...
I was surprised that I was exchanging so much information with this guy that I barely knew, and in the beginning, actually resented. We went to an English pub later to watch Everton hold Chelsea to a 1-1 draw(finally!), along with a couple pints of Guiness. We only parted ways when both of us got tired from the jetlag and decided to head back to our respective hotels. I came away however, gaining an insight into how the crew in his department viewed those in mine, and how we are both so blinded by all the bureaucracy from the management. In a perfect workplace, there'll be so much more communication between the 2 departments that it'll be so much more fun to fly.
Yes. And I'll live in a fancy apartment, fly as a hobby and have a svelte female chauffeur drive me around in a Bentley.
So, can't we all just...get along?
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