It's The Littlest Things

There are days when people surprise you -- in an unbelievably good way. They come rarely but when they present themselves in your doorstep, you can't help but embrace them and let them in. I work for three Revenue Managers, Chaitni, Leigh and Shaughn, and each of them lie in a different side of a three-dimensional spectrum. Chaitni is the bubbly RM, the one you know you can talk to about even the most senseless thing. She has endless demands but you'll save your forehead those wrinkles because she has this naturally polite way of asking, and she never fails to give a warm thank you every time she gets. Leigh...is a ghost. Her name appears in my inbox maybe just a couple times a month. While she may be the workaholic type, juggling days between work and family, I do sense an inner goofiness in her whenever she replies casually on emails and that's a good thing. Shaughn exudes the headmaster vibe: serious, austere. There is always a fear of opening an email from him because a thought of having done something wrong lingers at the back of my head every damn time, when in reality the message is just a string of inquiries, updates, and requests. Imagine how startled I was to see a new chatbox pop up in a row of humour-filled group chats. Shaughn was awake and chatting me. *straightfacepalm* He started off with "Hi Anne" -- his famous expressionless Hi (without punctuation marks, yo.) I was clueless, bouncing back with a "Hi Shaughn" (see how indifferent that sounds?) Of course, the nervousness was already sweating through my palms. I was anxiously staring at the Shaugn is typing... bit on the monitor, scared that I might have sent a wrong report or godknowswhat. And then, what appeared completely shook a millisecond of life out of me. "I know we don't usually get too many chances to talk but I wanted to take a moment and say thank you so much for all you do. There is no way I could do my job without your support and I wanted to make sure you know how much I appreciate all you do. We are at the conference in Las Vegas and have a busy day tomorrow, so I am going to get going, but I wanted to make sure I said hello and thank you. Have a good day. Take care and talk with you soon." "The fuck? He's in Vegas. He's drunk." I was in shock, for serious, worthy of the OM7H type of flabbergasted reaction. I can't believe what I just saw and read, and maybe I refused to. The stern professor had a heart! Who'd've thunk? Casting all doubts aside, I thanked him for the kind words while still reeling in shock, causing a pathetic reply with typographical error. It was sent past lunchtime on March 1st, but since he was in Vegas and was just about to sleep, I guess that was an extra something he did on his leap day. And I am beyond overwhelmed and grateful. Simple words that made an impact. It feels good to be appreciated. Now it's time to pay it forward. :)