Today was a really unique day at work - one of those, "I'm so lucky to be doing what I'm doing," kind of days. First of all, my industry is just fun, to be blunt. It's an industry that interests me. I don't think I could ever be a teacher, b/c that doesn't feel as much fun to me. Just like some of my teacher friends, and wife, couldn't ever operate in the world I operate in - not b/c they aren't smart enough or skilled enough - but because it doesn't send their fun-meter rolling.
But I consider myself lucky - I had a series of events from 2001 to the present that sorta leaves me shaking my head as to how I got where I am - not in terms of the Professional ladder, but literally how did I go from almost starting Grad school for an MBA in Higher Education with a concentration in Academic Advising to where I am now, Channel Marketing Associate for New Balance Athletic Shoe?
The details are boring to everyone except me, and that isn't really my point of today. Long story short, we had an all employee meeting today at Agganis Arena at Boston University to review a boatload of items and ideas, and it was energetic and exciting. But the fun part was that we broke into 65 teams of 10-12 or so, and we built bicycles.
We had to answer trivia questions quickly in order to gain chips which, in turn, would get us parts to build kids bikes. At the end, and I'm simplifying, we went back to the main stage area and the kids came on stage who were receiving the bikes - it was so cool to see them come in, know they don't have a new bike, and leave with a new bike we built, and my company paid for. I think that's exciting. All in all we made bikes for 130 kids, and they got a t shirt and shoes. This wasn't for the press, it wasn't for anything except corporate camaraderie and doing good for someone, because we can.
It made me feel good. Then, of course, I negated my good work for the day on my ride home. I was driving and saw a young adult walking down the street about 1/2 mile from my house. I saw him, while I was driving, take a swig out of a water bottle, finish it, and with a big smile on his face, toss it over a fence into a cemetery. Without thinking, I quickly tooted the horn and gave him an arms up, "what the heck are you doing!?".
This isn't meant to be funny, more me pointing a finger at myself and saying, "cool the heck out", but it was clear the kid had some kind of developmental issue, and I had the worst 10 second experience of realizing that, seeing him staring at me in my rear view as I drove away, and looking somewhat pained at his decision to toss the bottle, looking over the fence at it on the grass, looking at me, pacing back and forth.
Thankfully this only lasted for 10 seconds, and hopefully that thought entered and left his brain. My fear though, is the possibility of zero sum that I upset his day for the same period of time that I made a kid feel good about a new bike.
Why can't I just cool out about things.
No comments:
Post a Comment