Unlike anyone else on this board, I can take credit for using Simona Halep to make the world a better place, at least for one human being.
Last summer I was at an amusement park and, as is the case with so many summertime tourist industry attractions, the area had a larger requirement for basic service jobs than could be filled from the ranks of local teenagers or adults willing to work for low wages, so as has been the case for quite some years, they recruit foreign college kids. Employees at the park had their place of origin on their nametags, and amongst tags stating "Ball State University" and "Southern Illinois University" were plenty saying "Kiev, Ukraine," "Moscow, Russia," "Prague, Czech Republic," and "Taipei, Taiwan."
However the whole day, I saw only one tag from Romania and this young woman from Bucharest looked to be so depressed as to be in pain. As I was paying for my kid's snack, I asked "Say, are you a fan of Simona Halep?" and her face suddenly lit up more so than even with a small child when told his lost puppy has just been found. She had almost a look of wonder and asked how I had heard of her. I told her Halep was one of my very favorite tennis players and I loved watching how hard she plays every point, never giving up even against bigger, stronger players. She said "In Romania, EVERYONE knows Simona - she is our hero!"
We chatted for a few more minutes about Halep and her meteoric rise and then this young lady became depressed again, exclaiming, "Simona and I, we are the same age and she is famous and one of the best in the world, but I have gone to college only to serve ice cream!" I then told her what she had been doing all summer was mastering conversational English well beyond the level of fluency, that she did not even have that much of an accent any more, and out of all her co-workers from foreign countries we had met that day, her English was by far the best. She looked at my suspiciously at first thinking I was just trying to flatter her, but I was being 100% honest with her (she really did speak extremely fluently) and I think she realized it, recognized then that she was doing something worthwhile for her future that summer, and then smiled a grateful thanks to me. I think our 5-minute chat elevated the emotional state of a very sad, homesick young woman at least 6 or 7 points on a 10-point emotional scale.
So some of you can try to take credit for Halep's success - good luck articulating an explanation for how that works. But, lo, only I can rightfully claim that I have harnessed the power of Simona Halep for good in this world.... Errr, at least amongst those posting here on Talk Tennis....
