Catering to Life is harder than we sometimes make out to be. Unexpected things can happen that might have an unexpected effect on you. Life brings many surprises - some are good and some are just down right evil. People tend to look back a lot and wish that they did things differently. Wouldn't it be great if we could all have a reset button. I know from personal experience that I wish i did more than half of the things in my life differently. Sometimes we get ourselves so worked up about things, that in the moment your rage and your opinions seem to be like the right thing to express. However, I have learned that if one just takes a deep breath and waits for at least an hour before taking action of something that has annoyed you, then more often than not, your original idea of how to handle the situation turns out to be pretty stupid and wouldn't solve anything.
This one time, I was having one of my "worst day ever" moments. I opened my school email and saw that a punk had sent out an email to my whole music class of 700 people and dissed a person who was asking for help because they had, had the flu and needed to catch up on class notes. I got so enraged and decided to write back a hateful email. Now this might not seem like such a big deal....however, I also sent it to the whole class.
Five minutes later I already got my first few responses. They were very positive and from people congratulating me on doing the right thing and finally putting that guy in his place. I was very happy with myself and my actions.
Not long thereafter I got the "other" set of emails. The ones that people wrote hating on me just as I had done to that other kid. I was devastated! I do not like when people don't like me. Mature....i know. These hateration emails went on for weeks and weeks. I had to have my fiancee check my email account every morning and evening just so that I wouldn't have to read them myself.
Needless to say, I was very mad at the decision I made. I wish I had just waited to calm down and then decided whether to write that email or not. It would have saved me a lot of time and a lot of grief.
Learning from my mistakes is sometimes harder than people make it sound. However, I have made it a point in my life, to try and give myself a little bit of time before I act on my feelings. This is easier said than done and there are still many times I have made the bad choice because I was so sure I wasn't gonna change my mind (but of course I did). I try though, and I think that is what matters most. And that is another way I cater to life.