Thursday, February 12, 2009

I Just Can't seem to Get it Right Today

Today was just a bad day. Messing up at work just really stinks, and I messed up several times today. I forgot to change the time for a class to meet their bus for a field trip, so they were stranded with no transportation. The instructor worked it out, thankfully, but my mistake inconvenienced quite a few people. I feel terrible...

This reminds me of a day in graduate school when I was travelling to Rosebush (maybe?) to talk to another biologist about trapping grouse. The back road that led to his field office was a sheet of ice, and I slid off the road right into a ditch. Do you see a theme with me and trucks??? I had no prayer of getting un-stuck, so I walked (skated) to the nearest house. A very nice lady drove me to the field office, very, very slowly. The biologist was very nice about it, but I could tell he was not impressed. He drove me back to my truck, and hooked up the tow strap. He instructed me to put the truck in neutral, which I did, but then I got out. I don't know why I got out. In retrospect, I'm not sure what I thought would happen. In retrospect, what happened was perfectly logical.

I don't know if Mr. Biologist thought I was in the truck, but he hit the gas and pulled mine out of the ditch, and as soon as it hit the icy road it just kept on going...right into the ditch on the other side. I just stood there on the ice with my mouth hanging open, and I could see him shaking his head. He didn't say much to me after that, and any chance I had for earning his respect as a new wildlifer was gone. I'd say that was the story of my first 2 or 3 years at MSU. One stupid mistake after another. But thankfully, in between, I was able to recover and of course I did not give up. I remembered that we are all human, none of us perfect, all of us flawed.

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