Saturday, February 11, 2012

Do Me a Favor?

I'm getting cynical in my old age.

Perhaps "cynical" isn't quite the right word. More "worldly-wise" maybe.

I've apparently reached the age/experience level where I can be a resource to someone younger and a connection that they'd like to cultivate because they know I can help them out. That's pretty cool, I must say.

It does feel a little funny when they actually use your connectedness to try to get them special treatment though.

Therefore...

Three Ways You Can Tell Someone Needs Something from You

1. They contact you out of the blue.

And it's always super innocent. "Hello, *insert name here*! How are you?"

2. Their grammar, punctuation, and spelling are impeccable.

It's as if they think writing "How was you're weekend?" is going to make you hate them forever and not help them out. If I was your boss maybe, yeah, but I'm not. If you make a mistake, I'm not going to fire you...

3. They lead with the good.

"My week was wonderful-- I turned 21 and finished all my midterms/papers/assignments for the quarter! Plus, my older brother got married, so I got to go home!"

Then just when you're about to congratulate them, you get a quick flurry of texts that inform you of what they really want...

"Unfortunately, because of all this wonderfulness, I didn't get the chance to turn in that application for the board you're on, so... is there any way I could send it to you nowwwwwwww?"

Obviously, because of Reason #2, that "now" only has one "w", but you get my point.

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Now, I'm not saying that any of these things is bad. I'm actually pretty sure that I've used these at some point in my life. So I'm not condemning them at all. I was just amused that it took me being on the receiving end of this strategy to realize that there even was a strategy in the first place.

Now I know.

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