The Wanna-be

Written by: kamasheto

We were hanging around. Waiting, anxiously, for the time to come. It was almost 4 o’clock and nobody had showed up yet, other than us of course. I was eating a pack of chips (they stopped producing them like 3 years ago and now they’re back - Action chips with Pizza flavour if you’re wondering) and leaning against the wall right infront of the hall entrance. She passed by us once or twice, calling one of her friends a nickname on one occasion. She only stuck to my mind because of her outfit but otherwise, I couldn’t careless who she really was.

3:55, we’re almost there. It’s our day off and nobody still seemed to show up so it better be worth it. I’m really keen to get my soft-skills up to high standards quickly and efficiently and this workshops agenda was about “Effective Communication, Presentation skills & CV Writing” - exactly what I wanted. So I was starting to think even if nobody cared to show up, this will be of benefit to both of us.

Just about time I was starting to hurry to finish my chips pack I hear a voice coming from my right side. “Are you guys going to attend the workshop?”. I can tell it’s a female, I moved my head slowly towards the voice source and I see her, again. She has a smile on her face and looking at me, us. I don’t react, wondering what workshop could she be talking about. “The German Arab Chamber workshop”. Oh yeah, that’s a workshop, I remember now. I nod, feeling home at last, feeling better towards her now that I realise she’s probably a lecturer and has exceptional soft-skills.

“Can you guys wrap it up [she looks at my chips] because we’re about to start”. I raise an eyebrow, still not saying anything. I think she’s trying to be friendly with us - cool with me, except that I don’t really like to talk much with people I hardly know unless there’s something worth the discussion. Ahmed says something I can’t really hear (or remember) so I move my head towards him. She answers him so I move my heard towards her, again. My eyebrow still up. “Why are you looking at me like I fell out from space” she tells me. Heh, strange that she said that - I thought so earlier on when I first saw her. I don’t answer, still. She had the smile still on, that means she must be trying to make me interact, no?

I couldn’t answer. I’m still chewing on my chips and I don’t really want to talk to her - I shouldn’t have to anyway. I feel embarrassed that I might have offended her already. I swallow the last bit of my chip and answer. “I thought he already answered your question”, obviously not trying to back up now that I took things this far.

Her: Yeah, you still shouldn’t be looking at me like that. I only told you to wrap it up not throw it away. [now clearly it's starting to get ugly]
Me: [something I can't really remember - I was defending up to until this point though]
Her: Well, yeah, you should kind of react to what I’m saying too, out of courtesy.
Me: My reaction should be obvious, it’s only a matter of common sense.
Her: I don’t have any common sense? Hmm.. okay. Please wrap it up [and she starts to walk away]
Me: Absolutely not. [I start to walk away too]
Her: Fine.
Me: In case you haven’t noticed, its only us interested in attending.

What’s been bothering me ever since then were 4 things:

• I did NOT offend her. I had the chance, I was calm, I had the responses ready to be said, I just chose to not say any.
• I wasted at least 2 hours of my day without having real physical proof this lecture would be of any use to me - I did not know who the lecturer was, what points are going to be discussed, nothing.
• I wasted 2 hours of Ahmed’s time - perhaps his whole day too. He only went there because I told him to and now that I wasn’t going to attend he sure as hell wasn’t going to attend neither - only because I’m stubborn and will not change my mind.
• b00e569b5bd9b2372dfddc5a338b01f2.

I called her the wanna-be because even though she physically looked like she was at least 35-years old, she wore a green (#006633) babydoll and full make-up. I don’t judge people by their looks, not the least, but nevertheless, a first impression is the first impression - and boy did her final impression make a mess out of everything.