I remember as a student in China, when the teacher told us that some important person was coming to the school, I would first feel this strange tingle. Then visions would begin to fill my mind, creating all kind of wonderful and worst scenarios of how the event would turn out.

Then as our teacher led us to the courtyard (I guess you can call it that) and the toughest PE teacher in the school, with a whistle in his mouth, makes us salute until our arms hurt, my visions would change again into something scarier like something you see in the movies.

After that, I would practice day and night in front of mirror until perfection. Before I knew it, that day had arrived, a group of good little students would march back-and-forth in the courtyard like little soldiers while my heart pounded with anxiety, hoping not to bump into that person anywhere.

As the class adjourn, the teacher would mention the whole school would be gathering later to meet this person but we never did. I was filled with sheer disappointment. Not only did I spent hours and hours practicing my salute but I don’t even get to meet this big-name important person.

The same thing happened again yesterday. As I said in my post yesterday, I got a one-day gig for translation/interpretation. I remembered the moment I got this job, my mind like always began envisioning all kinds of things from meeting a bunch of old successful guys to getting a higher paid job as the result of the one-day thing. It was partly my mom’s fault too. She somehow got the idea that I’ll be meeting with some former provincial governor from China who supposedly knew my dad. Anyway, she hustled me into major preparation on Monday night.

Yesterday, I woke up an hour early than I was supposed to, got dressed in my best clothes, had breakfast and brushed my teeth extra good. I even put on make-up. Yes, make-up, something I never wear and something I’m not good at putting on. I arrived at my Alma mater, waited for my clients. It was another sheer disappointment.

It turned out it was some American guy who went to China, got acquainted with a Chinese couple who are heads of a big corporation, now come to Utah to look for a business partner. The meetings were sort of like errands for them, the same thing as what I was doing for my former boss, the one I quit a few month ago.

It wasn’t at all what I expected and basically, a lot of my preparation went down the drain because one of my clients didn’t even bothered with putting on a pair of socks! The Chinese guy was wearing jeans! No offense but you’re rich, shouldn’t you at least dress better than jeans and T-shirt?

Anyway, maybe my strange optimism just got the better of me or maybe people (my mom) should stop putting weird fantasies and visions in my head.

Thanks for listening.