As we start, would request you all to close your eyes,
please.
Now imagine a very frustrating moment you witnessed lately. I
mean really those moments that made you literally crush your teeth and left you
wanting to scream. Oh how the hell you maintained your sanity after that, only
you will know! Had there been a Noble Prize for such cases, you definitely
would have got a nomination, if not the prize.
Please now open your eyes. You would have noticed that most
such frustrating teeth- crunching moments happen where someone we care or love
is involved. Aah, I see a soft nod from most married ones!
My dear Toastmasters, such moments came into my life with
Sandy. I first met her as my roommate at boarding school. In the beginning it
was just her study table and bed being overloaded with her books, clothes, bag,
empty food wrappers and what not. Soon the overload spread to her almirah, my
table-bed-almirah and thereafter everywhere in the room. There would be times I
had to literally fight the urge to just pick my bed sheet and dump all her
stuff on the ground.
I tried to help out but thereafter it was more like giving
inputs about how this lack of tidiness and responsibility would eventually lead
to her own loss. She missed preparing for her Maths exam as was unable to
locate her notebook in the dump. And I told her I told you so! Our room was
voted the worst room in the whole dorm for year 1. And I told her I told you
so! Our room remained voted as the worst room 4 years in the row and I said “I
told you so!” Once she missed locating her cash to be paid to the cash shop and
she was unable to give her birthday party treat. “Sandy, I told you so!”
Despite it all, we remained good friends.
Odd as it may seem, we again ended up as flat mates when
working in Geneva together and still she hadn’t changed much. Unfinished food
plates, empty wrappers were always left in the common room. The weekly cleaner
used to charge extra for this and while Sandy would be seen shelling it out, I
would just stand to say “I told you so!”
Once we even faced a power blackout on Friday evening because Sandy
missed paying the bill on time and we could not any power back before Monday.
“I told you so!”
My salary was quite low then and I was barely scratching the
surface. My parents used to be quite worried as to why I was struggling so much
– working so late and making so little. Once when my parents came visiting, the
first thing I did was to push Sandy out to make room for them to stay with me.
The house was spic and span! I took my parents out to one of the finest places
I could afford to make it all feel nice and good. But parents then are parents
– they know it all. At the airport I stood hearing my share of “I told you so”.
Soon after I reached home feeling low and there she was.
Sandy. One look at me, and it was as if she knew the problem. She came and
hugged me saying “Everything gonna be okay”. This made me feels quite bad about
me, imagining the million times I said “I told you so” and here she was making
me feel better.
These four words became the most important lesson of my life.
So anytime I get a bad beating in life – be it something going off track, a bad
review from the boss, kid getting hurt – I just think and repeat “Everything
gonna be ok”. And frankly it has always been okay eventually, some later than
most but then it has been always okay eventually.
So my dear toastmasters, the next time on you feel low, you
feel that it is difficult not getting up from here, or something having gone
down that frustrating path, just say “Everything gonna be okay”!
Thank you
