It was only 8am and I was already wishing the day was over. I’d been woken up by my mother telling me I needed to get ready for work. I moaningly told her she’d woken me up too early and I had an alarm set for 8:30am. She’d told me that my father and sister both had work today and they took both the cars and I was going to have to bike it.
Now while it was an extraordinarily super windy day I wasn’t worried about being late. It was only 8am and I didn’t have to be at work until 10:30. I had plenty of time to take my time and get ready.
Now I don’t know about you but I am not a morning person. I may be awake but it takes my head a while to fully turn on. So I put on my professional uniform being a white t-shirt that says “LIFEGUARD” and my red guard shorts. My mother was so kind as to make me lunch and breakfast even though I was still arguing with her over when I had to be at work.
Skip ahead to about 9:45 and I was ready for work. I’d thought that I’d proven my mother wrong and that I could get ready in plenty of time. She was still trying to tell me I worked at 10 and that I was going to be late. I wasn’t having it at all. Why would I leave a half hour early for work? It’s only about a 13-15 minute chill bike ride away. I like to be early to work by at least 5 minutes if I can. Leaving at 9:45 seemed overkill to me, I didn’t need to be a whole half hour early!
Then it hit me, I do work at 10. What was I thinking? I’d never worked at 10:30 a day in my life. This is my third-year guarding how could I mistake that? It was now 9:50 and I was panicking I was going to be late for work. I grab my backpack swing it around my shoulders and get on my bike.
All I could think was I had ten minutes. Ten minutes to ride against the wind into work. How was I supposed to pull this off? I started peddling like there was a cheetah chasing behind me. I wasn’t about to be late for work because of such a stupid mistake. The wind was blowing so hard I could barely keep the bike straight. You know how when it’s super windy and the wind blows your car back and forth? Same thing but I was on a bike so it seemed so much worse.
After what seemed like forever I’d made it to work and walked inside the guard shack to clock in. As I’m walking all I could think about was how I was finally late for work. I get to the clock and it read 9:59. I’d made it! My legs were a little tired from the ride but that didn’t matter. I clocked in at 10 and carried on with my day.
Later on, my boss stopped by and I’d told him the whole story and he couldn’t help but laugh at me. “Toby this is your third year” he said chuckling. “We’ve never had a shift at 10:30 what were you thinking?” we laughed over it for a while and moved on.
Has something similar ever happened to you? How did you deal with it? I’m just glad my mother didn’t rub it in my face!
Toby Lopez 