Thank you, to my dear friend and colleague, Suzanne Nourse, from The Protocol School of Ottawa for doing this lovely piece on our friendship…a gift that has enriched my life!
Friendship
You know the feeling – you’re feeling a little down, the phone rings, and you hear the caring voice of a dear friend. Smiles all around.
That’s the relationship between Professional Courtesy and The Protocol School of Ottawa. Well, that’s how it started; Professional Courtesy and The Protocol School of Ottawa. Now it’s a valued friendship between Karen and Suzanne.
Over the years we’ve consulted each other over etiquette issues, traded notes, collaborated on seminar material, proofed each other’s work, and listened. It’s the listening that took a mutual professional respect to the rare and enviable place of true friendship.
Like most friendships, we’ve laughed, cried, and surprised each other during conversations. We’ve had lunch together and prepared dinner together. We e-mail, Skype, phone, send surprise packages, and exchange book and movie lists. We know each other’s families. We know each other’s strengths. We know each other’s weaknesses.
We have great fun compiling lists of differences since Karen is American and I’m Canadian. I can hear Karen smiling at my oot and aboot accent. I suppress a giggle at her roof and mauve pronunciations. She probably thought I couldn’t spell during our first few email exchanges. I put a u in a lot of words (honour/honor, neighbour/neighbor). Here’s a sampling of our fun differences list:
Karen Suzanne
°F °C
sofa chesterfield/couch
zee zed
“What are you talking about?” milk in bags
miles kilometers
dollar loonie
President Prime Minister
movie stars royalty
center centre
check cheque
4 downs (football) 3 downs
zip code postal code
We always look forward to our next communication, whatever form it may take.
We value and respect each other’s opinions.
We cherish our cross-border friendship.
We hope to meet one day.