a Bump in the road

Sometimes things don't go the way we want them, eh?  Sometimes there are bumps along the way and we bumble along, trying to maintain our footing as we patter across the rough roads.  As much as these bumps suck and create difficulties, I'm trying to see my own bumps as learning experiences.  I'm trying to find the positive so that I can move forward and learn.

This past week for me had some bumps.  It wasn't a bad week, really, but there were a few moments and events that make me want to slam my face into a brick, tear my hair out in frustration or simply cry in a corner.  Not extreme banging, tearing or crying, but enough.  The first was a BBQ that I planned for this past Wednesday.  This year, I have the pleasure of being the president of a club on campus and I decided that to get people to come out and learn about us, I would throw a BBQ during Introductory Seminar Week (ISW).  As far as planning went, most went off without a hitch.  I found cheap catering, got volunteers and volunteer barbecues, found tables, borrowed coolers... Things were looking good.

So what was the problem?  ISW is mainly first years and on Wednesday, classes hadn't started yet meaning that there were fewer students on campus.  This meant that we didn't get much traffic flow.  Bottom line, I ordered too much food.  Roughly two times as much as I needed, when the calculations came in, I think.  We were just shy of breaking even, and only thanks to generous donations by some of the professors.

It was my first time doing an event like this, but I felt like such a fool.  There I was, trying to make some money for future club activities and thus start the year off good, and yet I actually lost money.  Talk about banging your head against the wall.  I keep wishing I could go back in time and change my order.  But I can't and I need to look at this as a growing experience.  It's over and I'm not completely ruined.  I learned and will not make the mistake again.  Almost better to under order to ensure we sell out in the future.

The other bump from my week occurred Friday and comes in the appearance of a disappearance.  My new bus pass has gone AWOL.  Valid for the next twelve months, this bus pass is fairly expensive to replace and so I really hope and pray that it turns up.  I'm not entirely sure where I lost it.  I had it Friday morning when I went and came from class, then I decided to bike to my afternoon seminar and when I got home and was preparing to go out, I don't know what happened.  It's just not anywhere that I've looked.  I can still use last year's pass for another two weeks and so I pray that it turns up in that time.  Until then, I'll just have to live with this slight blip in the path.

And, well, thems the brakes.  Live and learn, eh?