Only Two Trains Late
I realized at an early age that I am not a timely person, and recently I even noticed that I measure my arrival at work by asking myself: “How many trains late was I?”
I am blessed with a short commute. To arrive at work by 8:00am, I must catch the 7:48 train from my local station. Trains depart roughly every six minutes, so if I get to the station at 7:49 I will end up on the 7:54 train, and in the office at 8:06. Mathematically-inclined readers will recognize this as a step function, meaning that I have a limited number of arrival times since there are a fixed number of departing trains.
Using trains as a unit of measure reduces the quantity I feel guilty about. Instead of thinking, ”I was 12 minutes late today. Eek, double digits!” I tell myself, “I was only two trains late.” When I began this job, I was normally zero trains late, a.k.a. “on-time.” Then, one morning I took too long getting ready and wound up one train late. One quickly became routine, and now two.
I will not even pretend that I am going to change my behavior and start showing up to work on time. The past couple decades have taught me it is futile. Instead, I give myself a bit of grace. Whatever tiny misdirections I must use to preserve my sanity are justified. I only have one mind, and I cannot allow it to bully me for the rest of this existence.