Conversations and impressions

Every time we take a taxi or book an Uber ride, I think we are setting certain expectations which I most definitely do not meet. I discovered that my rating on Uber is just 4.78, far less than a perfect 5. Though I console myself that what others think of me does not matter in the long run, I feel slightly pressurized to pull it up, especially because my friends seem to be much better customers than I am. I thought booking a ride was just a commitment to be on time and not disrupt the other person’s schedule too much. I could not be more wrong. Maybe I am expected to engage in small talk, maybe I am not. I am sometimes expected to take the front seat and sometimes not. Maybe I am expected to be better dressed. On the other hand, I happened to read about how driving with Uber has helped someone become a conversationalist, not running out of words in the oddest of situations. The optimist in me likes to hope for an awe-inspiring discourse every time I step into a car with a stranger and I have hardly ever been disappointed.

During the last month, I occasionally used an app that helps me carpool with others heading to the same destination or some place close by. From forming an opinion about someone who does not pick me up on time and then talking to them to realize that they are not so bad after all, to meeting  someone who graduated from the same university as I did more than five years ago and talking about a professor who seems to be teaching there since any of us can remember, my experience with this has been remarkable in many ways, just like most of my Uber rides. The most heartwarming encounter was the one with an Egyptian who I had to cancel on because he was late by more than half an hour, in spite of which he offered to drop me because we stayed in the same apartment. He was extremely apologetic for being late and for driving past me a couple of times, confused, without paying any heed to me. He went out of his way to make it up to me and offered to ride me to get groceries, which I denied and tried to convince that he had indeed made up for being “the worst person ever”- in his own words.

We all seem to be becoming adept at selling ourselves in less than ten minutes, the one skill that we need both at work and otherwise. Not being exceptionally good at it costs me my Uber rating, at the least. I hope I learn from my peers and others at work and will be able to deliver my perfect pitch soon without doubting myself. My job still feels like school, being surrounded by friends who I have known for a couple of years now. I have been advised to enjoy the ‘honeymoon’ period , after which I will be bombarded with work left, right and center. All I did in the first few days was to attend meetings where I did not follow most of the things that they discussed, but listened to people sometimes to admire their grasp of the concepts and sometimes to figure out who the boss is. The way people dealt with each other was enough to give me a clear picture of the team hierarchy.

Using the weekend to unwind after five days of work is how life is going to be for a long time and I am making the most of it, now that I have no excuse of being out of money. A couple of hikes, one of which I did all by myself, were truly relaxing and rewarded me with undeniably beautiful views. 

I discovered the pleasure of watching a basketball match for the first time which ended with most of us in the audience being let down by the home team losing. I admired the grit of the visiting team, who were not acknowledged by anybody in the arena and hardly received any applause each time they scored. That is exactly what I need to absorb in life too, to not drown in the noise around me and only focus on what is most important to be on top of the hierarchy that I mentioned earlier.