I used to go to Prospect elementary school. I lived at The Crossings, an apartment complex right around the corner from the school. They had a swimming pool that I loved to go to every summer, all the time. Except for when they repaved the parking lots, I figured out how hot asphalt can really get.
One day when I was walking home from school, over half-way home I saw a car coming my way slow down. I didn’t think anything of it until they stopped. I was walking on the sidewalk, and they were coming down my side of the street. I slowed down and looked in the car. It was stopped and I was stopped. I remember hearing someone inside the car call out to me. I believe he literally had a piece of candy in his hand and asked if I wanted it. I remember taking a few steps towards the car thinking it would be ok to just go grab it out of his hand. Something in my head clicked. I immediately turned and ran and screamed at the top of my lungs like a little girl. I ran all the way home and didn’t stop until I got inside. I told my mother what just happened, and I don’t remember anything after that.
While working at Beckett Thermal Solutions in the front office, I remember sitting in front of the computer, staring at the screen. I wasn’t doing anything. All of a sudden, someone entered the cubicle and asked if I wanted to participate in a science experiment. I read the paper and asked questions and signed it in duress. Something in my head clicked. I immediately said out loud to bring it back to me in a few years. He gave me an odd look, didn’t acknowledge what I said and left. I sat back down and got right to work.
I never heard about that piece of paper again.
Also, while working at Beckett Thermal Solutions I interviewed at Hyland software. Mike and my mother both happened to know employees at the company. While at Hyland, I sat down with 2 people who went through various interview questions with me. I showed them the code for the admin panel that I wrote. At the end of the interview, I was asked to stand up and take a marker at the white board. I was asked to write code on the board to answer the questions they had. All of a sudden, all of my knowledge seemed to have disappeared from my head, and I felt like I was on a stage naked with the audience clothed. I was asked to write a recursive function on the board. I froze. I knew what one was. I have used them before. I could not get it done on the whiteboard because I was completely frozen. I handed the marker back and concluded the interview and left. While in the car on the way home, about 5 minutes away from the building it all came back to me. I wanted to call and give the answer verbally. Instead, worrying about them thinking I had just looked it up in the car I gave it up. I didn’t get the position and continued working at Beckett on the floor.
The same thing happened to me in that office when I signed that piece of paper that happened to me when I took a few steps towards that car. The same thing happened while interviewing at Hyland.