First impressions are not everything...

Some months ago I scrubbed into a case for clinical rotations, and it was just a horribly off day for me. I was handing the surgeon all the wrong instruments, a sharp retractor snagged on my glove tearing a hole through both glove layers, and then proceeded to fly through the air and fall on the floor. So I'm contaminated and the instrument needed to be resterilized and they only had one of them, so the procedure was on hold for several minutes. As I'm changing out gloves, I accidentally touched my gown with my bare hand, so then I had to totally break out and go scrub in again... Things just kept going wrong for me. (the procedure went well, the patient was perfectly fine). But it was just a bad day for me. I felt horrible and fretted over it all weekend, replaying the day in my mind.
The next week at clinicals, I am assigned to the same surgeon doing the same procedure. I take some deep breaths and try not to panic as I approach the room. I'm expecting to get kicked out of the room and yelled at as soon as the surgeon realizes who I am, but I go in there and my preceptor introduces me to the surgeon again. He totally doesn't remember me. At all. I think he is even pronouncing my name wrong. But, since I was mildly traumatized by my shortcomings at our last encounter, I practically have the procedure memorized. I know exactly what he calls all of the instruments and exactly what he wants next and I have figured out how to pass that sharp retractor without stabbing myself. I get an amazing review for how well I'm doing, and that is how the surgeon remembered me for the rest of the semester.