Read The Beginning followed by The Middle.
***
As with any war, there are ceasefire
moments. Our lab agreed to one so we could grace the annual cancer biology department holiday party on
December 12th. Upon entering the club, we were assigned name tags,
of which we were strictly told to respond to through the evening. Min and Yuwen were to be properly known as Suzy Snowflake and Turtle
Dove, respectively. Thai was named Holiday
and Ying was given the awesome identifier, Feliz
Navidad. Mari was referred to as Mary’s
Christmas Baby. And to my Christmas delight, I was branded as Mr. Grinch.
We were also given clothes pins to
wear. The point of the game was to collect as many pins by tricking people to
say our real name instead of the assigned holiday name. The clothes pin power
game was strong between Mary’s Christmas
Baby, Holiday, and Mr. Grinch. Eventually Mr. Grinch was able to amass
eight pins and thereby win AMC gift cards.
My victory was short-lived.
Tuesday the 13th would
prove to be the second ugliest day of the two-ish week battle. The bright morning
signified perfect California weather ahead. Perhaps this inspired a desire for
cleanliness, but whatever the reason, the war escalated to chemical skirmishes.
I managed to capture the action on my phone.
Obviously, I endured. I
was able to survive the stench of undiluted bleach poured into a large sink. I
overcame the odor of the repellent disinfectant that prides itself as being “bactericidal,
fungicidal, virucidal, and tuberculocidal.” How? It is the very feature that Thai
later took a dig at-- my plump cheeks. The Navajo ancestry who bestowed such cheeks imbued me with a strong bodily constitution.
In stating this to Thai, I resolved to finally order myself a 23andMe kit to test my claim. Whatever drama I fostered with the word 'hippie' was nothing compared to the displeasure displayed by Thai to the words 'genetic testing'.
"Xazmin, are you serious?! Don't do it! Haven't you seen Black Mirror? I will never have my genome sequenced. Are you okay that others have that information? Just imagine what can happen. What if they use your genome to create clones of you?"
"That would be sweet! The world needs more of me running around. I need more of me to finish whatever I've started. Sign me up yesterday."
Though I went 0/3 that day, the simple act of purchasing the kit catapulted my psyche into an unbeatable mindset. Hope rallied optimism. Optimism was channeled into spirited work. Work produced answers, which brought me cheer. Basically, for the next three days, I should have been called Beyonce because I slayed.
By December 15th, when melancholy made its weekly visit to trouble the Kong Lab, I could not be affected. Others succumbed to its mirthless effects while I cheerily moved from one project to another. Thai and Min conceded defeat to our foe, depression. I did not yield. But I could not glory in my triumph against a common enemy while battling my lab mates. My heart, having grown two sizes larger, caused me to speak honestly with them.
"I'm sorry you guys feel so sad. Is there anything I can do to help you feel better?"
"No. I just don't like Thursdays. Lab meetings always remind me that I haven't done anything."
"I'll be fine. I'm just stuck with a lot of writing. I can't wait for the weekend."
"Okay. Well, I am cheering for you both. I call an end to the Kong Lab Civil Wars."
***
The End
No comments:
Post a Comment