(Rock and) Roll

Ever had those days where nothing seems to be going right?

One week into my swamped lifestyle, and having managed to squeeze in exercising my right of “suffer-age,” I can say that I have. Almost as surprising as some election results is my sudden inability to put words together (or my two feet in front of each other). Some days, it almost feels like walking in a haze of fog. In short, I have become a fullfledged klutz.

Now normally, being a klutz only becomes life-threatening when you’re struggling your hardest to impress that particular boy/girl you’ve had your eye on.

In my case, holding a job magnified that quite a bit. Not only did my higher-ups expect me to perform consistently regardless of the level of klutziness I was feeling at that time (and rightly so), but there’s also that chance of being given a talking to or a dressing down should I manage to miss the mark a few times (which I did).

As frustrating as it is, I’ve learned that the best thing I can do is to roll with it. Apart from being Optimus Prime’s battle cry for the Autobots , it’s also a good piece of advice that I’ve taken to heart.

In boxing, if there’s no possible way to avoid that left hook that your opponent throws at you, the best you can hope for is to take the punch and roll with it to reduce the amount of damage taken. It’ll still hurt, no doubt, but since when was life about finishing the race without a scratch?

As much as it hurts my oftenwrong ego to know (painfully and embarrassingly, sometimes) that I do not churn out Pulitzer-prize winning novels with every click of the keyboard, for example, it’s also a reminder that I’ve got to “strengthen my chin” and take the punches like a man.

At the end of the day, it’s never about being the strongest, smartest, or most charismatic. At the end of the day, what wins out is the size of the fight in the dog, not the size of the dog in the fight.

So, I guess, for as long as we still have some strength to fight in us, we can continue to hang around during those bang-your-head-on-a-brick-wall times. After all, when you’re feeling like you’ve hit the bottom, as my grandfather used to say, there’s no other way to go but up.

Some sagely advice for those who need that staying power until getting their second wind:

“I get up, and nothing gets me down You got it tough, I’ve seen the toughest around And I know, baby just how you feel You got to roll with the punches and get to what’s real…”

And yes, those are lyrics of Eddie Van Halen’s “Jump”. Sagely advice, indeed.