Lessons Learned from Grit Magazine

My first job, other than household chores such as cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming the stairs, was a newspaper route. Not one for a daily early morning daily commitment, I elected to deliver a weekly newspaper rather than a daily edition. I'm not sure how I came about this particular newspaper route, but Grit was the one for me. Each week I picked up a bundle of Grit magazines from the post office and set off on my bike to deliver them to my ever-loyal customers. Some weeks I was totally ambitious and got the papers delivered on the same day I received them; other weeks they sat in my closet for a day or two until my fourth grade lifestyle settled down enough to allow for delivery.

One time, however, the few days spread into weeks and the stack in my closet grew higher and higher. The procrastination started out legitimately enough as I missed the first week due to an asthma-related hospital stay. The next week the magazines came and I added them to the pile thinking I'd take care of them later. The following week they were added to the ever-ominous pile and the pile was then pushed back a little farther into the dark shadows of the closet. This continued on for a while - until Mom discovered it. I think I've blocked out the ensuing scene, but I'm sure you can probably imagine it. Recently, Mom told me, "I don't think I've ever been as mad at any of you kids as I was at that time."

Afterwards, Mom gave me the worst punishment possible - to go to each of my customers, apologize and ask them if they were still interested in purchasing old copies of the magazine. I was so embarrassed and humbled by this - my pride was shattered. Even more so when, out of pity for me, some people actually paid for the old news. For the ones that people didn't buy, I ended up buying myself.

Soon after that, I gave away my route but the lesson has stayed with me. I often find myself putting things off for (at first) a legitimate reason but then finding it hard to get back to. A perfect example of this is grading student papers; I have every intention of getting them graded and handed back within a week. But things like student advising, faculty meetings, sick kids, etc... happen and the grading gets put by the wayside - not in a dark closet, but by the wayside nonetheless, until the night before the self-imposed deadline. Thanks to my Grit lesson, I stay up most of the night and finish the job - because it's the right thing to do.

Even though I'm done with my paper route and student grading, I'm sure I'll find more things to procrastinate on - but I realize the lesson will stay with me and the job will eventually get done. Thanks for that lesson Mom.