Today, my blog entry is more of a confession… A tale from my university days…
When I was at University, I was in halls of residence in my first year… That means you get good digs and facilities, you get to meet lots of other students to make friends with, though you do not get to choose who you live with for that year… I was happy with this…
As a result, it meant that in my first year apartment there were some lads I became especially close with and great friends with and a couple who I would not usually have encountered through my own social circles…
Of those, one of the guys was a bit shy and slightly unworldly and so I would take him out to social events and bring him to the pub with my friends and did all I could to help him make friends while many others used to ignore him as he was not their type of person… That used to annoy me.
So anyway, that Christmas, we all decided to have a party toward the end of term — just our apartment, for dinner and drinks.
Everyone joined in and mucked in and we had all peeled vegetables and helped cook. This other lad had volunteered to make a cake. He soaked the fruit for the cake, he baked it lovingly, iced it, decorated it and did lots of work to make it something that very few other student meals would have that Christmas!
The night before our meal together, I went out.
I went out with friends from my course and football team lads.
I had quite a bit to drink. More than I realised.
When I got home, all the others were in bed. I got myself a glass of water and as I glugged it down, I spotted the cake. “YUMM!” I thought “That looks delicious… and I am starving…”
I naughtily proceeded to cut out a wedge of cake and stuff my mouth with it. It was delicious. I then drunkenly squeezed it all back together, poured warm tap water on my hands and smeared the cake icing over… It was now the shape of a rugby ball, but I thought no-one would notice. I went to bed satisfied.
In the morning, I was woken by a knock at the door. My flatmate walked in, almost crying. “Adam, you are never going to believe what some b@stard has done…”
“What happened?” I replied, naturally concerned. “Have you been hurt?”
“Someone has eaten some of my cake and ruined it…” He whimpered “someone has ruined all my hard work, I don’t know what to do Adam...”
The penny dropped inside my mind. It was me. I felt dreadful and very guilty.
I looked him in the eye “I am so sorry, I don’t know what came over me… I did it when I came in last night...” I brushed the crumbs off my face that were still there from the night before. He was even more upset that it was me of all people that demolished his cake.
We drove to the supermarket, I paid for and bought the new ingredients, we then made another cake together during the morning that I had planned to sleep off my hangover.
How I wished I had not done it. How I wished I could turn the clock back and not have been so utterly selfish… Especially as so many other people were now finding it so hilarious…
I told this story at Christmas. It feels good to mention it freely again without the years of guilt plaguing me! Phew…
Why am I confessing like this today?
Well because I am writing my ezine article about learning from your mistakes. As a youngster, I was often told to learn from my mistakes… I often think, well HOW do I actually go about doing the process of learning from mistakes? Do I just put it down to experience and trust that I know I would never do such a thing again…
Recently I discovered a fabulous technique for learning from mistakes or problem experiences in a variety of circumstances and that is what I am writing about in this weeks ezine article… Do look out for it. (Register for it for free on most pages on my website) For today though, thank you for letting me exorcise the ghost of University Christmas past… I was not always such an angel 😉
