Summer loving, had me a blast
Summer loving, happened so fast
I met a girl, crazy for me
Met a proprietary programming language, cute as can be
My life is not like Sandra Dee’s. I’m not blonde. I don’t wear poodle skirts. And there is absolutely no way I would ever try to change my image to suit the needs of a lousy guy. Despite this, there is one thing we do have in common. We have both experienced the ups and downs of a summer fling.
I’m not naïve. I know about the dangers of a summer romance. Trust me. As someone who has had absolutely no experience with relationships whatsoever, I feel qualified to discuss this. In the heat of a climate constantly warming due to anthropogenic forces, things are bound to get hot and steamy. But what if I told you this beautiful tale of love and lust happened in the cool air conditioning on the 11th floor of an academic college building? This isn’t just a story about a summer fling, but a workplace summer fling.
I met him one fine afternoon during the first week of work. A fellow coworker introduced him to me since we would both be working on the same project together for the next eight weeks. His name was Matrix Laboratory, or MATLAB for short. He was wildly popular in the office. Everyone always asked him for help and relied on his assistance to complete their own projects. From the first second that I saw him, I knew I would hate his guts. No matter his reputation in the office, I found him difficult to work with. Could I really spend eight weeks with this insufferable numerical computation and visualization tool?
At first, it was like we were speaking two different languages. We each viewed the project from different angles with different perspectives. There was a lot of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and subsequent frustrations. Whenever I tried to input an idea, he immediately got annoyed and shut me down. Everything had to be done exactly his way or else it simply would not work. But even though we may have gotten off on the wrong foot, we eventually started to understand each other better and to actually accomplish some work.
As we continued to make great progress on our project, our relationship grew stronger. One day, we all of a sudden saw each other in a different light. I no longer found him an arrogant mathematical computing software but a helpful colleague and close friend. Eventually we started meeting each other outside of work. We took long walks in India Point Park. We shared ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s. And we discussed the linear independence given a set of vectors. You know, like normal couples do. At this point our relationship was blooming like a matrix of love.
However, like I said, I knew about the harsh reality of a summer fling. I knew it wouldn’t last forever. I was prepared for the end. As the weeks dragged on, our love just seemed to crash. On the last day of work, we parted for the last time and said our goodbyes. It was an amicable farewell at the end of an unforgettable summer. Nowadays, despite my occasional longing for MATLAB, I soon realized that there are so many more computing programs out there for me. Speaking of which, there’s this really cute programming language in one of my courses this semester. His name is Python. I think I should introduce myself.
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