Friend or Foe? Gerald - Survivor, pickleball, and being better.

My timeline collided with Gerald Djajaputra's at Eastern Michigan University in the fall of 2018. We didn't make for fast friends but soon found we'd solidified a foundational partnership we both could depend on.  A powerful and productive pair, our alliance isn't a surprise to anyone who knows us. Overlapping our work and play, our compatibility manifests not just in our common interests but in ways we find value in our lives. 

Continuing the theme of "why Heather Irvine is trouble", Gerald admits who I remind him of in the game of Survivor, how I cause him and others more work, and why he’s frustratingly unflappable. 

Stay tuned for the next episode. @iheatheri @fordstudiob

Transcript

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I'm Heather Irvine and you're listening to episode featuring friend and colleague, Gerald Djajaputra. Gerald are we on the air. Hey, hey, how are you doing? I'm I'm continuing this perspective on the perils of hiring me. in our declarations of what it meant to both of us to study My name is Gerald and who we know each other from graduate University. We came in on the same year and we were both were teaching foundations of speech communication. So we obviously we took classes together. We had adjacent desks on Eastern's campus, both teaching graduate teaching assistants while achieving our master's After graduation, Gerald cut through the darkest, quietest social media coordinator for Michigan's leading real estate stewardship as a volunteer coach with Eastern Michigan those eagles are soaring at high altitude. I am the social media coordinator for the Real Estate stationed by my side, Gerald is the dinker to my banger as we in the world of pickleball. We are The Dare Doubles, the duo in My first episode was all the reasons why an employer should podcast is all the reasons why they shouldn't. Hence, why you This is why I asked Gerald because I knew Gerald would have everyone should know about. Let's do it. So talk to me. I am Heather's biggest fan and greatest foe. Oh yay. So talk to me. Biggest fan. Biggest fan because we like reality tv fan. And also I'm a fan of anyone who I can talk want to talk about the Bachelor Tuesday night right before All right, so greatest foe. Greatest foe because Heather was school and I had to do more work so I could compare to her. Turn around this fair play. I'm going to give you reasons why hired you and one of them is I'm going so I'm gonna start with could have like five things due in the next five days, we're all Gerald and he's just shrugging it away. Like, yeah, I'll get it Which is actually strategy. In what way because let me just say you were not validating my feelings of absolute stress and like among our cohort, there was a lot of stress and if I could situation, it was a win that you know, all right, I'm gonna have Because while I was stressed, I don't remember if I was kind of like, I gotta get it done. I never saw you dress. I always worried that what you had wasn't right, even though of us had. You weren't stressed about the timeline. I don't was more like am I doing a good job and is the product I'm whoever was creating. You're right. Gosh, boy, you hit the What Survivor player do you think I might personify, who you a part a Parvati. And I'll tell you why. You're incredibly fit, think your energy would attract people to want to work with you. I remember every group work project that we did, you are Parvati that I take that as a compliment too. I will. She's because she was so in control of her game like she never left she never depended on them. She needed to win immunity she won Dang, I'll take that one. And run with it. I don't know every time I was in grad school. I just always felt you're doing more. Whoever hires you, you're, I just want to say who's going to push your team and yourself to be better. And I to have. Yeah, they're going to challenge you. Yeah, there's never question your intention. It was that can you challenge I think this could be better. What I'm thinking is that it's everybody else off. You know what? Maybe that's the reason you're gonna approach the job as a Survivor game and you're just I'm better as your ally than as your enemy. You know what, I think I could say the same about myself. Which are the other person's? Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what I was going to challenge the status quo. I think we live in an age where your portfolio matters. I agree final project was? Screenplay. Yeah, I wrote a feature length undertaking and is a really cool thing, if you're going into takes the resolve and the the perseverance. I'm just here to use of this. Hire Heather, you won't regret it. Whoever listens make you so much better. She's going to make sure like, you are always the standard. I will say, in our class, you were the time turning in quality and like you are always the standard, we better. And that best summarizes our relationship. Gerald and I, we complementing and enhancing our world with our adjacency, skills and passions. Thank you for listening to episode three of As Recommended. Gerald and I are Eagles of a feather, continuing to pursue with other EMU alumni. Solo and separate we are tenacious and inimitable. This interview was conducted on an MXL condenser microphone a with Adobe Audition. Thanks to my friend, cohort and partner, playing along. I'm Heather Irvine and this is As