A Bad Day.

I'm going to apologize in advance for this long and rambling blog post. I know not my usual fair, but felt like I had to get this out. Thanks in advance for your indulgence...

Today was a very bad day at work. I know that everyone has them from time to time. But it always seems worse when it's happening to you.

It's part of life. When your school is done, you go out into the world and get a "real" job. And you do the best you can. You don't ask why, you try not to complain (too much), but you overall get the job done.

It has been building for sometime and today was the tipping point. I cannot go into specifics of what happened today. (I have recently found out that my employer has been monitoring my "online" life.) But it's safe to say, that I have made mistakes and they have caught up to me.

Everyone makes mistakes. It's part of being human. You learn from them and move on. You try very hard to be the best employee that you can be. But sometimes that's not enough. Sometimes your mistakes become to frequent. Eventually, they will overshadow you. Sometimes it's a bad combination of unrelated factors. What works in the past is not the same that will work in the future.

Sometimes when you get THE bad day to end all bad days there is nothing that you can do. You must sit there and take your punishment. If the punishment is bad enough, it will have far reaching effects. Effects that you couldn't even imagine. It could effect your income and therefor your comfort of living. It could effect your future. Literally taking 2 steps back from where you where. (You can see where I am going with this...)

At first I was mad. Mad at myself for letting things get this out of hand. But after that passes, I just felt numb. But you cannot go back. You can only go forward. So I did what I could to make the best of a bad situation. I'll let you know how it turns out.

But as I sit here and type my tale of woe. My "Ultimate bad day". I'm watching the news and seeing the horror of the earthquake in Haiti. My bad day looks laughable by comparison. I still have a roof over my head, food on the table and family and friends to lean on. 100,000 others in Haiti are not so lucky. It was an odd juxtaposition. It helped to put things in perspective. Made me focus on what's important.

Where do I go from here? I don't know. For now, I will have to stay put and swallow some bitter pills. But from there? The future is limitless.

I guess what I'm trying to say is from time to time you have to take your lumps. But get up and keep going. To quote my favorite Star Trek episode, Tapestry, "If you want to get ahead, you have to take chances, stand out in the crowd, get noticed." Don't be afraid to take chances. But learn from your mistakes. "You must unlearn what you have learned." To quote Star Wars.

Be careful what you put online. You never know who is watching.....