Jason's Daily Notes

So I got pulled over by the police last night. For making a u-turn in front of a police car, causing the policeman to step on his brakes. As a result, I have been feeling angry, depressed, and like a failure. I've been trying to vent to my friends, and they've replied with variations of "that sucks," and it has helped me feel better a little bit, but I still felt really dejected, and frankly like a failure.

Well, I just got off the phone with my mom, and told her about my experience. And I expected her to be hard on me, expressing some sort of disappointment in what I've done wrong. But she didn't. She simply said, "oh well - that's part of life. It happens to everyone." And she said it with the resigned certainty that only comes with life experience. She knows that it's not a good thing, but it's not a major life setback, and that it's not worth it to waste my energy worrying about it. In a matter of seconds, the weight of my guilt and anger simply lifted off of me. None of my friends could have done that. Only mom. So as much as I may feel embarrased by her, or feel that she's out-of-touch with our current generation; I really have to acknowledge that my mom knows a thing or two about life. And I'd be all the wiser to pay attention to what she says.