ajarora^1.0

So I started my internship with the Yahoo! Developer Network on Wednesday (I’ll save the story for how/why I got/took the job for later). Luckily I wasn’t nervous at all since I went to Startup Camp at CommunityOne with Dan Theurer (the technical evangelist I’ll be working under) on Monday and met most of the team.

The first day was tough. After picking up my shiny new MacBook Pro and plugging it into my gargantuan monitor, Jeremy Zawodny drove me up to the city to skip work for a Giants game (and beer) with Chad (the head of YDN) and some other software pros from Adobe, Salesforce and IBM. Now I’ve known Jeremy’s name since I was about 15 and it’s easily one of the biggest names at Yahoo…not to mention the fact that his book is on just about every shelf in our CS bulding. And now I sit in a cube across from the guy. I gotta say he’s ridiculously down-to-earth and has the best sense of humor of any genius out there.

Every guy on this team is so cool and welcoming, and people around here know it too. Whenever I tell anyone in the company that I’m interning with YDN they tell me I’ve got the best job around (not that the other teams blow or anything). So pretty much I’ve been walking around with a constant cheesy grin on my face.

But the most amazing thing happened when I got back to my hotel after my first day of work. I was hungry and tired and ready to get into the sweet bed when I opened the door and saw a huge room service tray. There was also a champagne bucket with some Pellegrino and Vitamin Waters and a card with my name on it.

I opened the card and started reading:

“Dear Mr. Arora,
My name is Rosa and I have been servicing your room for the past three days, and I noticed that you enjoy this drink. (Aside: I had grabbed a Vitamin Water while I was at the Startup Conference the other day) I hope you enjoy it and have a wonderful stay.

Sincerely,

Rosa”

I can’t tell you how many mouth muscles I pulled with the smile on my face. I had no idea what I had done to deserve it. I’d give her a tip when she came in in the mornings, but it was only a few bucks. The tray was filled with the best fruit and hit the spot like nothing else. I slept like a happy baby.

The next morning I went to the local florist and picked up some roses that were on special for Mother’s Day. I grabbed a card and wrote,

“Dear Rosa,

I can’t tell you how happy your card and gifts made me. That was the kindest thing anyone has done for me in a long time. (Aside: It’s true, my birthday was two days earlier and I didn’t even get a real present) You are a wonderfully sweet person and I wish you all the best in everything.

Sincerely,

AJ”

I put the card in the envelope and wrote on the outside, “Las rosas para una Rosa.” It’s going to be a great summer