Changing Christmas Lights

Today, I learned a simple truth. Life takes second tries, and in most cases it takes many, many more than that. And, to be honest, I think it's such a simple truth that we often tend to forget it. We live in a culture where things need to be done quickly and one time. We're always rushing from one thing to the next, scared what we'll miss if we don't get swept up into the rushing tide.

Our culture tells us that if it doesn't work, we buy a new one. Your car stopped running? Get rid of it. Buy a new one. Your shirt got a whole? Throw it out. Buy a new one. Your marriage is failing? End it. Start a new one. And sadly, this is the culture that I've been raised in. And I can't count the amount of things that I've gotten rid of just because they were broken or they needed a little elbow grease.

Except for two days ago. My bed in my dorm sits on top of my desk and my dresser, so I sit underneath it. I tried to stand up, but I was too close to the edge of my bed, and I hit my head on it, breaking a christmas light that I had attached to it. It shattered at the impact. Now, I can't say that I've ever changed one of the bulbs in a strand of christmas lights. If a strand doesn't work, my family would just get a new strand. Not that hard.

However, since I'm a college student, I don't have the funds or the mode of transportation to quick run to the store and buy a new box of lights. Plus, my box came with the proper supplies to fix it. I thought "How hard can it be?" So, without reading the instruction or looking it up online, I attacked the bulb, trying to pull it out. And it failed. Miserably.

Then, because our society is also based on the internet, I looked it up. I found a wikihow article, and read the section that I needed. And I went back to the lights. And it didn't work. Again. So I reread the article, and retried the lights. And it didn't work, one more time. So I gave up for the night, figuring I'd try it again later.

Yesterday, I looked over the article again, and tried to pull the bulb out. And it didn't work. It was really starting to frustrate me. So I just gave up. Until today, when I actually decided to read the instructions and figure it out properly. It came out almost right away, and I could replace the bulb. And now, they are dutifully making my happy as I write this post.

Anyway, you may be wondering what this has to do with life. Well, the answer is simple. I thought that this was going to be an easy fix, but it wasn't. It took time, and many tries, but eventually I got the results that I wanted. I think this is such an important reminder in life. If you work hard at something, eventually, you will reach your goal.

Just keep those simple truths in mind,
Carly

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