Perception.

What I learned today is that you really have to try your best in everything you do. You cannot be complacent and think you're doing well, because you might be one minute, but not the next, and then you have to try and get out of it, and that's never pretty.

I was looking through my grades this morning and realized as I looked at it that I had an 89.67% in the class. The last time I checked, I had a 96%, and the teacher said I shouldn't worry. There was an assignment I forgot to do which he said I could do for partial credit. Since my grade was good then, I decided not to do it, since it was only 5 points. I emailed my professor about my grade and found out that he wasn't going to round up my grade, and that I'll be stuck with a B+. While I was sorely tempted to beg, I realized that in the end, it really had been my fault. Most teachers round grades up, but this one didn't. A lot of time in life, people and life itself will cut you breaks, but most of the time, it just wont. I complained, I blamed, I could have cried and kicked the wall or sent the professor a hundred emails - but it really doesn't make a difference. At those times, you're either prepared for it or not. I was upset for a while that he wasn't going to round it up. But, that was when I realized that if I had just done that one assignment, I would have been fine.

I thought I would have learned this by now, that complacency can never be an option. My Mom always tells me to do everything I can to get the best grade I can. Mom's always right. Sometimes, you just don't realize how one minute thing at the beginning is going to come back round and take a huge bite out of your butt.

No preparation? No butt guard? Well, smaller butt after, not to mention the huge pain in the ass.

If you don't try, no, scratch that - BE your best in everything you do, if you don't put in all the effort you have, you will regret it. A small homework assignment, cooking a meal, walking the bloody dog, it all counts in its own little way, because it isn't the activity itself that matters, it's your attitude towards it. Never mind that your company didn't its best work out of you, never mind for a moment that you didn't get that A.

At the end of the day, it's not about the grade or about the job you do. It's about your self-worth, that self respect for what you have accomplished. It's about being man (or woman) enough to bring your best to the table so that when you look back at the end of each project, or each day, week, year, whatever, that you have done your very best. It's the only way to live this life.

Your very best, so you have no regrets.

No regrets.

Lesson learned.