Wow, I think I just talked to the nicest 800-number support person. Now I feel so bad for running low on patience in the beginning of the phone call. So the story begins with me dropping my book bag this morning with my laptop in it. And ever since then my laptop's been randomly shutting off on me. Sometimes when I took out the battery and turned it on again it would actually do so. Other times I wasn't so lucky. Anyways, so I finally called HP tech support to see if my warranty expired in case I have to send it in. From the moment the person answered the phone I guessed that she wasn't American. She had this accent in her voice. But slowly as she stayed patient with me and helped me with my laptop I thought... What the hell is wrong with me?! She's only trying to help me and do her job. And here I am taking out my frustration on her. Who cares if she's not American. Yes I know...Americans are losing jobs due to outsourcing but she also needs to earn money to help her family. It's not like she doesn't know English or knows nothing about computers. She went to school too. She worked hard for this job. And she knows more about computers than I'll ever will. And shame on me, I have so many friends who are international students. While we were waiting for my computer to reboot we also had a short conversation about our lives. Yeah...a bit weird and unexpected for a tech support call but I liked it. She's in the Philippines and has a family, including a one-year old daughter. Before hanging up we wished each other best of luck and she told me to study hard, etc. Certainly not the phone call I expected when I called....

By the way, it's not my intention to praise HP support because the last time I called definitely was not a good experience. And I still don't know if my laptop is fixed but I'm typing on it now and it hasn't shut off on me yet.... We'll see, my warranty lasts another 13 days.

This experience just makes me wonder about how much we take it out on other people when things aren't going right for us, even on total strangers. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this experience made me reflect upon how so much of my anger is the result of my selfish desires, circumstances when I don't get my way. I need to stop being so conceited; stop being so unwilling to inconvenience myself, as if that was the worst thing that could ever happen. I need to grow up.... I'm pissing myself off.

Also, this is kind of off-topic but when the comedian Paul Kim came to Haverford, one thing he said was to be nice to telemarketers. Because as much as you don't want them to call you, they also wish they weren't calling you either. Think about the person on the other side.

Just food for thought.