I Gave My Professor an Apple

So, here's this thing I've been meaning to confess. It happened back when I was in my second semester of grad school and dealing with the pressure of classes, research projects, and trying not to go crazy from all the caffeine I had to drink just to stay awake for lectures. I started taking a course with Professor Zhang at the beginning of that semester. Now, he's one of those professors everyone respects and tries to impress, smart, kind, but also very busy. For the first few weeks, everything was going smoothly. Then midterms came around, and I felt like I was drowning in work. One day, during a particularly stressful study session, my friend suggested that giving our professor a small gift might help me get more attention or feedback on my work. It seemed crazy at the time, but after another late night trying to finish an essay, I thought 'why not?' So, I picked up an apple from the grocery store and wrote a little note saying something like 'To Professor Zhang, Thanks for all your help, hope you have a good day! [My Name].' It felt a bit childish but also like it might be okay because, let's face it, professors are people too. The next class, I slipped the apple and my note onto his desk while no one was looking. He noticed it during class breaks, looked puzzled for a moment, then chuckled and took the apple. After that day, Professor Zhang did give me some extra pointers on how to improve in my classes, but he also started making jokes about the apple incident, like we were part of this bizarre professor-student gift exchange. Looking back now, I feel embarrassed because it wasn't a professional thing to do at all. And yet, there was something silly and endearing about giving him an apple that made me smile through my final exams too. But yeah, I guess that's just one more weird grad school story for the books.