Just another lucky guy

I received untimely but rather expected 'OIRA' style graduation treat today. To make it clear, OIRA stands for Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, where I have been working to earn my bread and butter for last 2 and 1/2 years now. One's favorite cake (Black Forest in my case) and 2 flavors of ice cream make OIRA style party. And of course something special for this party was a graduation memorabilia. Another seven days and I will bid adieu to OIRA as well.

It seems to be just yesterday when a shy, nervous, unexperienced and amateur brown guy discovers this opportunity waiting around unexploited in the unseen corner of the campus. I can still remember that day little vaguely, wearing a tee with inappropriate message I entered the lobby of the office. Since it was lunch time and everyone from office was in the break room, I was asked to meet the director in break room itself. The idea of facing every staff member at once, made me stumble a bit. When I entered and gave a brief introduction about myself, there were questions darting around from every nook and corner of the room and to my surprise I handled all of them rather unexpectedly well. And yes, some questions were indeed about the message printed on my tee. Leaving the office on high note of confidence, I was wondering if this tee did ruin my chances or did it made day for that bunch of gleeful Americans.

And within a span of 3 days I get the offer from OIRA. I still wonder if it was that tee shirt or my apt answers that made me providential. To make the events even more extravagant, I was having 3 opportunities to choose from on that day. But this one being 0.5 FTE there was essentially no option. From that day to today, everything worked out seamlessly without any sorts of hassle. I could not have asked more than having assistantship with such a considerate boss. I would always be thankful to everyone at OIRA staff and especially to my boss Mike, all my life for their support and consideration. Cheers!