Sometimes, I get too busy for my own good. This time, it was not the band, it was with my oldest son. I was on my way to a recruitment presentation at a local school, informing middle school students about the benefits of the Magnet Program that I coordinate. As I was driving to the school, my oldest son called me and told me that he had missed the bus (Of course through the car’s Bluetooth/ hands-free system). To make things worse, he kept cutting in and out. I was not pleased. I was really not pleased. I did not handle this well. I was short and loud in my responses to him. “What happened?” “What were you thinking?”. Not once did I consider the fact that in three years, this was the second time that he had missed the bus. Not perfect, but close enough. My response to his situation, based on his good record was the reason for Interview failure #1.
I could not leave the presentation. The last time that an event happened (car accident) and I could not make a presentation, the person who took my place did not have all the answers for the parents in attendance. The issues that were created by the lack of information took a long time to overcome. It was not fun. It was not the fault of the presenter. It was my fault for not having someone else prepared to speak about the school. The fact that I still did not have someone to take my place if needed was the reason for Interview failure #2.
Now that I was at school, I called my oldest son again. I asked him what happened and I was not pleased with his response. He was on the couch watching TV when he realized that the bus was passing by the house. He still had to put the dog in her crate and lock up the house before he left. It was impossible for him to get this done and chase after the bus. I was still not pleased, but I was responsible for the presentation. He would have to wait until I was done so I could pick him up and get him to school.
In my head, I was going through what I would say to him, “Do you realize how important it is that I make my meetings?”, “If I cannot handle my job responsibilities, I will no longer have my job?”, “Do you mean to tell me that I had to interrupt my day because you were watching the television?”. Though all of these were true, none of them applied to the situation or the level of emotion/anger that I was feeling inside. My thoughts were not directed at correcting the mistake, they were directed at the fact that my day was inconvenienced. Though not directed to my son at this point, my thoughts were wrong and my use of emotion was wrong as well. Interview failure #3.
Finally, I took a few deep breathes and started to get my head together. I was now able to try and solve the problem. My wife works in the same school system that I do, I called her cell phone, but she shut it off for the school day. I then called my secretary who could transfer me to the phone in her room. My secretary was out of the office because her building was having a fire drill. I called the main office at my wife’s school. No one was picking up, which is common at that point of the day as they are very busy. I waited a few minutes, got my breath, called my secretary again who was back in the office, she transferred me to my wife. She was able to get release time to get my son and drive him to his school. Finally, I am starting to pass the interview. Funny what a few good deep breaths can do towards improving the situation.
I called my son, told him that Mom was on the way, to have a good day, and that I love him. In the back of my mind, I was contemplating how my reactions to his lateness could have affected his day. I did not want to sour his day. He made an honest mistake. He made the difficult phone to rectify the situation. He did not try to lie. He took my poor response “like a man” and did not make excuses or blame others. Pretty good job for an 8th grader. My son passed the interview.
Everyday is an Interview 