dancing through life

I started my new job at X Hospital last week. X Hospital belongs to a big group of hospital and twice each month, they give all new employees of each hospitals an orientation to the facilities, benefits, policies, customer service etc. On the second day of orientation, the facilitator gave each one of us a piece of paper and instructed us to go to other employees, write their names up, which department/hospital they will be going to, their functions, and what they like to do in their spare times. Being a shy person, one of my concerns about moving to another place is the difficulty of finding new friends. But I vowed that I will try my best to open myself up to opportunities of making new friends. This activity, I thought, was a great way to start.

I went up to two older ladies in the corner of the room. They were talking to each other, so I waited for them to acknowledge me,which seemed like forever. I flashed my biggest smile when one of the ladies looked at me. She didn't say anything, so I introduced myself and asked her name. The other lady finally looked at me, but gave me a look that made me feel unwelcomed. It was as if I disturbed her from a very important conversation. She didn't seem too interested with the task the facilitator gave us, either. This really disturbed me, especially because the facilitator talked about customer service not only to customers and patients, but also to your co-workers. I left their table feeling uneasy about joining this hospital. I know they are not representatives of all the employees of that hospital, but I still felt so unwelcomed.

I don't know why but this incident discouraged me in meeting new friends. I tried to shake the feeling out and be positive, but it bothered me so much. I remembered the story of a little girl who loved to dance. (To protect the innocent people, some details were changed) The little girl was in her ballet class or recital. She and her classmates had to hold hands and dance. She tried to take the hand of one of her classmates but the other girl ignored her and danced with another classmate. The girl was surprised at first, for having been rejected. But soon after, she just went along and danced happily on her own. How I wish I had that little girl's resilience and spunk. I should take a lesson from her "So what if they ignored me; I am gonna dance and have fun."