Surprise Birthday Gift from the Interns

Our company hired two interns from Sweden lately. They are young, full of joie de vivre, and super passionate about programming. They also care a lot about engineering practice. To promote unit testing (they are helping us on test automation), they even hand-made some badges and gave one to us if we wrote more tests. (I got the first badge and felt so honored.) Working with them really teaches me to be humble.

Several days ago (my birthday), I was going out to have tea with Chinchih (as a celebration) and  told them it was my birthday on my way out. When I was back, I noticed a print-out on my desk with a book cover and a happy birthday mark from the interns. "Thanks for the print-out, why there's a book cover on it?" I asked the interns. "Oh, we thought you would like the book so we bought it as your birthday gift. You will receive it in 5-8 days. It's shipped to your home." A bit surprised, I asked them, "But how do you know my home address?" "Oh, we asked the HR. She told us." Wow, I was speechless. Never in my life had anybody gone through so much effort to send me a gift (let alone someone I barely know). I was moved, I could even feel tears in my eyes.

OK, maybe life is not that bad after 41. Sometimes even a small gesture can lighten up other people's life. That's probably the most important thing I learned from the interns.