1. "Many Vietnamese students who study abroad want to return and make a change in our country, but when they come back, they get changed by the society here before they can do anything." Last week, a friend quoted this saying from another friend when talking to me. I disagreed.

2. "In fact once installed in your new position, the first thing is to work out the pecking order. Many people try to deny it but office politics does exist. If you've never been in a work environment before, use your first job to learn about how to handle it or how to avoid it." (The essay "New graduate - new job" from English First)

I am now an intern in an NGO and have to get acquainted with a working environment, especially so-called organization culture. One first day an officer told me that I should also do things like making tea/coffee for visitors, cleaning the dirty cups, water the trees ... (I'm sure that the male intern didn't have to such things. So funny they are working on Gender issues. I have to do this and this and this just because women always do that ?!?) The next day another one told me not to wear jeans at the office and I had to wear shirts always. (I'm sure there are other kinds of wearing polite enough for office other than shirts.) Yesterday another one asked me to leave a meeting at the office that I was advised to join by the manager.

I felt uncomfortable.

But yesterday I realized that the officers here have to do many unnamed stuffs. I think I should sympathize with the fact that they would like an intern to help and to understand their "position" in the office. Anyway most of their comments to me are acceptable.

3. So these 2 inccidents remind me of a story a friend forwarded me 2 years ago.

A carrot, an egg and a cup of coffee

with the message: You'll never look at a cup of coffee at the same way!

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling.

It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose. Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans.

She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me, what do you see?". "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity, boiling water, and each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. It's thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?" "Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Think of this:
Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

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I am composing this blog entry at 6.30 AM (GMT+7). Good morning and hope you have a good cup of coffee for every day. And let's be coffee yourselves ;-).