Look on the Bright Side

So, we've been back to school for one week now, and let me tell you, boy has it been one hell of a week.

Last Sunday I made my return journey to school. I sometimes give a friend from high school a ride to and from Midland over holidays because he doesn't have a car. As usual, I dropped him off at the units and turned off the car to help him get his things back into his unit. To my surprise, when we were finished, I went to start my car, only nothing happened. Fantastic! After letting it sit for some time I tried again, but it still wouldn't work.

Someone came to pick me up and we got all of my things to my apartment. I then called AAA to have them tow my car. Unfortunately, the driver was apparently incapable of towing my car to a shop. He managed to get my car started by pushing it with his truck (since I drive stick, it automatically starts once it reaches a certain speed). You're probably all thinking problem solved! Only it wasn't. Although he could start my car my nudging it, my car wouldn't start when I turned the key. When I asked him what I was supposed to do, he told me have someone follow me to the shop so they can pick me up. Wait, did I miss something? I did get a TOW TRUCK sent to my location. I didn't understand why he couldn't TOW my car to a shop? Hmph?!

Monday morning rolls around. Borrow my roommates car to get to work (I have an internship at a radio station by the way). Everything is going as usual. The equipments not working, I'm in panic mode, blah blah blah. At 7:30 the director of sales for the station calls me and wants to know why we're not on the air. I tell him I don't know, everything in the studio is fine, and when he tells me to fix it I'm baffled. I don't know why it's not working, so what should I do? After numerous phone calls to numerous people I find out that I had managed to turn the transmitter off. WOW! I had accidentally pressed the wrong sequence of buttons while taking meter readings at 6:30, so our station wasn't broadcasting for over an hour. Beautiful.

On Tuesday I was finally able to get my car towed to the shop. What I originally thought was a $350 starter fix turned out to be a $1400 steering column problem. Fortunately, Belle Tire was able to find a used steering column in a scrapyard nearby, and that brought my cost down to $500. Better, but still more than what I expected.

Eventful couple of days, right?

While my stress level and anger levels were higher than normal, I was proud of myself because throughout these situations, I was able to take a step back and look on the bright side. For example, when I got back to my apartment on Sunday I was grateful that I had gotten to Midland BEFORE I started having car problems. Fortunately I didn't have any issues driving to school that prevented me from arriving on time or getting into an accident.

After I shut off the transmitter, I was waiting to get chewed out by my boss. He came in though and seemed pretty nonchalant about it. He explained to me what I had done wrong, how to fix it, and how to look to avoid the same mistake in the future. It was ironic because up until that moment I felt lost in the studio. Which is unacceptable considering I've been working there for the past three and a half months. You're probably thinking, "well why didn't you ask?" It's hard to ask questions when it comes to the station. You don't know what can go wrong, so I don't know what questions to ask until the problem arises.

Finally, having a car in the shop for a week has been making it very hard to get to and from class and work. But I have had so many people text me or tell me if I need a ride anywhere to call them and they will come get me. Words can not explain how grateful I am to all of these people and how much I appreciate it.

"Ya find out who your friends are,
Somebody's gonna drop everything,
Run out and crank up their car,
Hit the gas get there fast,
Never stop to think what's in it for me,
Or that's way too far.
They just show on up,
with their big ole hearts <3"