Falling with Style

This is a post from January 8, 2010.  I just reread it and it motivated me to get moving this morning. Hope it does the same for you.

I ran into my friend Scott today. He’s the kind of guy I really should be better friends with. Why? He’s an upbeat guy. A guy who sees a future full of possibilities, not a present full of limitations. A guy you want to hang around. A ten-minute conversation with him got me thinking about my future. And my past.

Nineteen years ago, I crossed over a stage and into an uncertain world. It was 1991. George Bush was in the White House. We were at war with Iraq. The economy was sliding into the toilet. I was graduating at a very bad time to find a newspaper job. Particularly one as a cartoonist.

I could go nowhere but down. And down I went.

Fulfilling my parent’s worst nightmare, I moved back home and landed a job as a high school janitor. When the economy went into the toilet, I was cleaning it. I pushed a trash barrel with a copy of my diploma on it, walked with my lip out and threw the mother of all pity parties. It was such a big party that I even had snacks. I was miserable. And I let everyone know it.

About six months had gone by and I had hit rock bottom. I hated my job. I hated everything. It was about that time I reread the Parable of the talents. When it comes to religion, I am a very private man. But it was a powerful moment for me. I was the servant who was burying my talents instead of using them. It was a bolt of lightning. It was a wake-up call. I needed to get on the stick.

I started drawing again. T-shirts for the Cross Country team. Caricatures for the teachers’ husbands. I even used to write “Pulitzer Prize” on the chalkboards. The harder I worked, the better my attitude got. And the better my attitude got, the more things started to change for the better. One of my friends at the school set me up with her daughter (she saw something in a janitor with all his teeth, I guess.). Another teacher told her newspaper editor friend that she knew of a talented young man with a great attitude. A few weeks later, I was hired at The Marietta Daily Journal. My career was born.

My conversation with Scott today reminded me of my past because he’s doing the same exact thing today I did 19 years ago. He’s not worried about his career. He’s out there, trying new things, working his tail off and planting seeds for a new, better future. His talents are getting a good workout. And I expect he will soon reap a big reward.

I fell on my face at Pope High School in Marietta, Georgia. Yet, I fell with style. And I learned how to get back up with grace. What seemed like the worst time of my life turned out to be my best. Why, you ask? Not because I learned how to wax a cafeteria floor or clean crap-covered toilet paper out of a stopped-up toilet. No, remember that girl I dated? She’s my amazing wife and wonderful mother of my three boys.

Sometimes your worst moments in life turn out to be the seeds of your finest ones.