Keep Trekkin', You'll Make It There. Trust Me.

Yesterday, (Friday), I celebrated the completion of my first two weeks at my new job. (I even bought myself a pudding as a reward!).  I am very proud of myself.  Not only for sticking with it for two weeks - and no, I'm not stopping there - but also for learning a brand new skill set and also some life lessons.

Yes.  I said life lessons.

You're probably wondering what kind of crazy job I have, that two weeks would teach me something.  I am a dishwasher for a university cafeteria.  I love it, and I'm proud of what I do.

I've come to realize, with some help from others, that I have THE most important job in the place. Nothing happens if there's no clean dishes.  I'm busy all day, and there's never nothing to do.  I don't consider my job to be purely washing dishes, however.. in my opinion, and the goal I aim for, is to make every person I come in contact with happier.  A lot of time, that simply means having clean dishes.  But, if I put a little more effort in, the level of happiness actually, legitimately increases; instead of them just being 'happy' (read - satisfied) by the work that I do.

So, enter life lesson Numero Uno.  If you're happy and upbeat, your day will go better, and everyone else's mood immediately improves along with yours.

Like I mentioned a couple of posts ago, smile everywhere and at any opportunity.  I smile at everyone I meet, every morning, and usually it's accompanied by a very loud, energetic, and cheery "Good morning, _______!"  They usually play music in the kitchen.  We have two Jamaicans working with us, and often it's a Jamaican station from satellite radio.  So, I dance across the floor.  I give hugs away like they're a disease, unstoppable and spreading to every individual.  I say please, excuse me, and thank you... even the people who bring me dishes get thanked.  (Note.  Kind of funny to do that.. they always look confused.)  Part of my job is to collect cardboard and take it out to recycling, and also to help put away shipments of food every morning.  I try to make everything I say positive.  I say, "Yes sir," and "Yes ma'am," all the time.  I don't think about having the 'lowest' job in the place.  I think about how much I'm making their lives easier and better because I'm saving them time. 

And it's working.  Almost everyone smiles back.  They tease me a lot... partially because I scare easily, and they think that's funny.  I've got a few nicknames in two weeks.. including Princess, Little One (I'm pretty much the youngest), and this one fellow calls me Stretch.  No idea why.  They give me hugs.  Someone gave me a cookie.  Another offered to pay for the pudding I got yesterday.  They apologize for bringing me dishes constantly and making messes. 

Which brings to life lesson Number Two.  The constant dishes.

See, my goal since starting has been to clear the racks and washing area every day, so I have nothing to do.  It did happen Thursday, because the night washer had help Wednesday night.  It was great.  I kept up with everything right away, and I had time to Comet and scrub the entire place down and mop the floors.  I was so proud of my pretty, clean, shiny dishpit - which I like to call my "haven" - and I let EVERYONE know.  But, as I'm sure you can guess, it doesn't happen often.  New dishes always come.  It's cyclicle.  Even on Friday, I couldn't fully keep up, even though it was spotless the day before.

At first, it bothered me.  I wanted to be the best dishwasher they ever had, to keep up perfectly, to have it clean for the night dishwasher every day.  I was discouraged when I had more than I could handle during my shift.  But it didn't take long for me to realize that sometimes, even my best efforts won't fully clear away the mess.

So I was thinking long and hard about that this week during work, because I really don't want to get discouraged and disappointed every day I don't get absolutely everything done.. because that would mean 95% of the time I wouldn't be reaching my goal.  There are ALWAYS new dirty dishes to be done.  Thinking about that, I realized something.

It's not how much you have to go that's as important as how much you've already come.  Although the dirty dishes matter and have to be washed, they really aren't what I should be focusing on.  They're a goal to work towards, but that's all they are.  What really matters is that I'm putting in my full effort and focusing on what I've accomplished- the dishes I've washed, the things I have done.  Because I'll never be fully done, so if I keep looking at how far I have to go, I'll never realize how far I've already made it.

One of my favorite missionary stories involves Amy Carmichael.  I read once about a story where she had to lead many children on a journey of several days, traveling on foot.  Understandably, the children became tired and slightly less than agreeable.  To encourage them, whenever they asked how much farther it was to their destination, she told them, "Every step you take is one step closer!"  Meaning = There may be a lot to go to your goal, but as long as you're still moving forward, you're getting closer. 

I had my own Amy Carmichael experience approximately two years ago in Guatemala.  We had a day trip in which we were lucky enough to be able to climb an active volcano.  I paid to ride a horse about halfway up, mostly because I love horses and take any opportunity to ride one.  However, I was soon glad I did.. because when we hit the volcanic shale, I felt like I was going to die.  If you've seen the Lord of the Rings, imagine the scenes of Mount Doom - foggy, desolate, and full of small, sharp rock chips that make walking difficult.  That's pretty much exactly what we had for our walk up the latter half of the mountain.  I made it fine for awhile.. mostly flat parts, I'll admit, but as soon as we hit some intense uphill I was done.  Especially because I'm diabetic and my energy stores work a little different than other peoples'... since my body can't convert sugar on its own, once my energy reserves are depleted I'm practically useless.  Eating helps a little, but it takes awhile and unless it's a substantial snack with sugars or protein, all it does is put me back to being stable. 

Anyways, point of information and story is that my blood sugar was lowering, I was tired, emotional, and to make it worse, I kept tripping and falling.  I was at the back of the pack, and far behind the next last person.  But one man taught me an incredible lesson that day.  And it's the lesson that came back to me in these last two weeks.  It's not about how far you have to go.  It's about how far you've come.  Steve Smith (our head chaperone), stayed with me, encouraging, demanding, yelling, pushing, pulling, sharing his own water, and pointing out the way when I couldn't make it out anymore on account of sweat and tears.. and I made it to the top.  Slowly, but surely, one step at a time, I walked those rocks.. or more like monkeyed over them, using my arms and my legs.. but I made it. 

On the way down, I fell on a large chunk of volcanic rock and ripped a huge gash in my left knee.  It bears a scar today.  Add to that, we lost our guide for a while and ended up having to backtrack when we did find him.  We had to zigzag up a portion.. and I was low, tired, somewhat disoriented, and now bleeding.. but I made it, because I set small goals and focused one step at a time.  There was one boy in our group, and he was kind enough to stay with me.  On the way back up that trail, I had him travel to the next turning point in the zigzag, and I walked to him.  I didn't think about taking the whole trail on, or the rest of the walk down.  I focused on twenty foot sections at a time, on making it to Tobyn, and then looking back and being proud of every twenty feet I accomplished.

Together, my job has reminded me of those two things and made them more real for me.  We've already talked about making our world a better place with a better attitude in previous posts, so I'll leave that be... but I want to encourage you to, as Dory the fish says in Nemo, "just keep swimming".  Don't look so far forward that all you think about is how much you have to go.  Don't look back and spend your time thinking about when things weren't so hard, either.  Doing either of those is bound to bring depression.  Focus on what you're doing now.  Small goals, one step at a time.  Look back and be proud of how far you've come. 
I was reading Chicken Soup for the Soul earlier today and I came across this quote: "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow."

So do that.  If today doesn't work out, promise yourself you won't give up and you'll try again tomorrow.  As long as you're moving forward, nothing else matters.