Air-Freshener for you is about my walk into an certain office in Dubai, after a long day job-hunting and not focused on my appearance, after handing my resume and about to leave, a lady pulls our a can of freshener and sprays behind me as I am leaving the office. Now, I never had any prior experience to this and to be honest, was something which caught me by a surprise and did not know how to react. I was caught up in my own world of desperate job hunting, that my personal hygiene was a luxury too expensive to afford at that point. Though to many of us, this may seem offensive, I was emotionally smart not to pick this fight and slowly kept on walking towards the door I that I came in from. See by doing this, I was saving whatever strength left in me for more important task at that point in my life; finding a job before my visitors visa expires. Now whoever has visited Dubai and tried to search for a job opportunity while on visit visa, knows the pressure and stress experienced during this time where every single day counts and every single action can make a difference between achieving your goal of failing.
Now this is means as rhetorical question, but at the same time can be a point to ponder. Have you ever had a can of air-freshener sprayed toward you? and what was your reaction? See, a can of freshener here is symbolical, it may mean anything that was done to you meant to discourage you but you totally ignored it and kept focus on the task at hand. Maybe a good example here is Dave Chapelle’s, when he was attacked by a fan on stage who threw a banana peel at him, rather than wasting his energy to retaliate, he [Dave] did not make a big deal about it. He did acknowledge the incident being an act of some hatred for what he was talking about that did upset the attacker. Now, in life there will be Air-Freshener and Banana Peel scenarios one will face and when they do occur, it is at that time whatever your reaction will be, can determine whether you choose to ‘get even or get ahead‘. By not focusing to get even and retaliate on the incident, one can utilize the energy saved to pursue something else that will be beneficial to them rather than waste it in fighting back an act which at that point, to be honest is history.
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