Sometimes my coworkers tease me because I’ll stay later after work if I am in the middle of something that I want to get done. That’s how I do my best work, I focus and get something done with plenty of time to make it the best it can possibly be. They say, “Why stay late? It’ll be here tomorrow.” I’ll tell you why: because one thing I pride myself on is not being a procrastinator. Especially if I am handling a problem. I say that if there is a problem, you fix it. You don’t try to forget about it and hope it goes away, because then one day you will have to deal with it and it will be much worse than if you had just taken care of it right off the bat. This is my belief with lots of things, from dishes to relationships to work. I remember my freshman year of college, my mom baked me a really huge delicious chocolate cake and gave it to me to take back to college. It was in one of those tall tupperware cake containers that snapped shut. I ate a slice of the cake every day, but after a week there was still a third of it left. I snapped the top on it and sat it up on my top shelf in my dorm room. I would notice it from time to time and be like, “man I really need to take care of that, it’s going to be gross inside.” But it wasn’t a priority, so I just didn’t worry about it. It ended up sitting on that shelf for 8 months. Then one day my mom asked me if I had the container, because she really wanted it back. I knew the moment I had been dreading had arrived. So I took it in the dorm bathroom, slowly opened the lid, and lifted it off. Let me tell you, words cannot describe how horribly putrid and disgusting it was. The mold had enveloped the entire inside, with the thick green fur climbing up the sides and covering every available inch. Having to clean that tupperware was one of the worst moments of my entire life, and I vowed from then on that I would never put crap like this off ever again. Take care of it now, because later it’ll be a lot worse to have to handle. That’s my motto now. Don’t let parts of your life get moldy. And that’s why I stay late at work.
November 10, 2008
