Looking Back On My Life in CAT Mode

A wise friend once told me never to make a decision when you're hungry, tired or stressed. That explains why I never wrote very much during my work duty in Tennessee, because I was one or all of those three things at various moments. Actually, I should correct that. I wrote quite a bit. I just never published any of my posts.

The writing I did on the road was very in the moment, full of the emotions and daily frustrations of doing a tough job under difficult circumstances. It was cathartic to get those emotions out and not carry them from one day to the next. Expelling that emotion, along with the demands of my every day life during those weeks in Tennessee, left me mentally and physically exhausted. For a large portion of my stay, as one day led to another just like it, I felt like the Dunkin' Donuts guy....



Looking back now on what I wrote during that time, I realize I spent a lot of time thinking in very selfish terms about how I was feeling instead of focusing on the positives of the experience. I got nothing but incredible support from my co-workers. We had lots of laughs in spite of the stress we were all under.  And while there were a few challenging people, our customers were amazing and so grateful we came to help. I'll never forget the woman who stepped out of her car when I greeter her, looked me square in the eyes when she handed me her keys and said "Thank you for being here."

I learned a few practical life lessons too.

• Hail can really mess up a car. This used to be a convertible top. Ouch.

• Working in close quarters actually brings out the best in people. When you're sharing power cords, cameras, printers and everything else, you learn pretty quickly to get along or it's going to be a VERY long day. We all pretty much took the attitude that the sooner everyone jumped on a task, the sooner we all got to leave. Teamwork is a beautiful thing.

 

• Looking at a laptop that doesn't reflect local time is a double edged sword. In the morning, you feel like you're up even earlier than you need to be, but later in the day you start thinking you have plenty of time ahead of you until you discover you're exhausted because it's really 3 hours later. I need to learn how to change my laptop settings.

• Everything takes twice as long when it rains, but cool weather is better than hot when you're on your feet for 11-12 hours a day.

• Improvised body shop environments can be lots of fun paired with an iPhone and an Instagram app. When I was at my wits end and needed a break, I'd slip away for a few minutes and find something to photograph. I took a lot of pictures.

Most of all, I'm glad I listened to my friend and held off on hitting the publish button before the time was right.  Looking back, life in CAT mode wasn't so bad after all....