NEW CASTLE —
It’s the night before your big presentation.
Maybe the night before your big test.
Or the night before your big game.
And you can’t sleep.
You’re exhausted. You’re in no shape to leave the house, let alone excel.
Your eyes have more bags under them than the luggage carousel at the airport.
Your head aches.
You just want to crawl back under the covers and go back to bed.
But your boss is waiting. Your teacher has her red pen in hand. Your teammates are counting on you.
It ALWAYS happens this way, doesn’t it?
It’s always something.
You’re late for school.
Or maybe your first day on the job.
Or the doctor’s appointment you’ve waited six months to get.
And you get behind the guy wearing the ball cap driving a pickup truck. You know, the guy who can’t possibly have his foot on the accelerator, who’s continually glancing side to side as if he’s never driven on this road before. The guy who sees you in the rear-view mirror and KNOWS you are in a hurry. So he drives even slower to tick you off even more.
So you zip around him the first chance you get and ... three semis carrying concrete slabs are in front of you.
Then, up ahead, you see the warning lights drop as a train — a very long train — slowly rolls past a line of cars.
Five minutes later, you’re moving again only to see more red lights in the distance.
School bus.
It ALWAYS happens this way, doesn’t it?
It’s always something.
You got sick over Christmas, right? So did thousands of other people. And all of them were waiting for their prescriptions the same time you were.
You’re having computer trouble, so the third time you’re transferred you get the guy in India whose only English includes the words “sorry” and “you must upgrade.”
You get a gift card to the hot restaurant in the area ... and it’s a two-hour wait.
You finally arrange a date night with your spouse ... and the school nurse calls that afternoon and says your kid just puked all over her teacher.
You drop your car off at the local dealer for an oil change ... and you get a call saying $600 of additional work is needed.
Your cholesterol is through the roof.
The pamphlet on your counter that you’ve passed a hundred — no, 500 times — in the past month is gone ... because you actually NEED it today.
All three of your kids require braces.
Your cat needs surgery.
The toilet just overflowed.
You feelin’ me yet?
Know anybody who’s dealt with this stuff?
It ALWAYS happens this way, doesn’t it?
It’s always something.
But why does it always happen that way?
It’s called life.
Despite what Joel Osteen and Tony Robbins try to sell ... er, I mean tell you, you can’t control it.
You just can’t. Too many things happening around you.
Too many other people who dictate your schedule on any given day.
In other words, stuff happens.
It is what it is.
The story of our lives.
So, is there anything we can do about it?
Yep. Live.
That’s it. Live.
Wherever you are, that’s where you need to be.
You can stew and drop F-bombs when life nibbles at your ankles.
Or you can surrender and maybe not always enjoy the journey, but learn to roll with it.
You can only respond to what life brings you. So why not respond in a way that may bring some good to your life?
Strike up a conversation with someone in line at the grocery store.
Plop in an audio message when you’re stuck in traffic.
Read a book while you’re waiting an hour in the doctor’s office.
Have a joke contest with your kids as you’re mopping up the bathroom floor.
Text an encouraging message to a friend as you sit at the railroad crossing.
Be aware. Be present. Stop thinking five steps ahead to where you would LIKE to be.
Chances are, you’ll experience plenty of headaches once you get there, too.
Make sense?
And who knows, maybe I’ll bump into you in line one day and we’ll become fast friends as we explore this concept further.
That is, if I can just get around this flippin’ car in front of me ...
Tim Kolodziej
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About Tim Kolodziej: Tim is director of new media at The News. His blog appears each Thursday.
Discussion
Tim Kolodziej: You know, it’s ALWAYS something, isn’t it?
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