Five times an authority figure reminded me I messed up

We are all human and make mistakes. Sometimes we do not perform at our highest levels, and it leads to questionable actions that have consequences. In life there are reminders of these instances. In an effort to show greater accountability to myself I am going to share five personal moments where I was reminded of my constant failures.

Every day I work to get better as a writer here on Once a Metro, and I want to set an example. Every anecdote I am sharing here is 100% true, I promise. You can ask me about them in the comments.

5. My wife reminded me on vacation that we still have not solved her visa situation

I married the girl of my dreams back in June before moving to Brazil. We hoped that marriage would help her get a year long residency visa like the one I have here, but it did not. I hadn't seen my wife for three months (as we work to resolve this along with other loose ends back in the United States) and one of the first things she did on our most recent vacation was to remind me this is still unresolved. It wasn't in a mean way, more of a "we thought this would happen and it has not and it sucks not seeing each other for three months" kind of way. Anyway, we are back apart, and it sucks. I love my wife though, and we're going to figure this out.

4. My boss reminded me of my first correction I had to issue before I moved

I've had to issue two formal corrections (unless someone reminds me of another one after I publish this) at my day job. It happens, but it is still soul crushing. My first one came right after a big assignment in South Korea covering the Asian Games. I attributed a workshop I attended that was set up by a close personal friend of my boss to another company. Everyone understood why the mistake was made, but it was still pretty bad. My boss reminded me of it inadvertently right before I took my current assignment I'm on. The reminder came about 11 months after the initial incident. I still feel really bad about that mistake and have moved passed it, but the reminder brought back some insecurities. But that's life. You just need to keep writing because otherwise you won't become a better writer.

3. My rowing coach reminded me of a really bad race I had

I rowed competitively in college (was kind of okay, but trust me not elite) and sometimes to get rowers fired up coaches remind them of failures so they can move past them and work harder. I kept rowing after college and one of my club coaches used a story of me completely messing up the start of a race in college from two years ago to help motivate me during an extremely hard practice at 6 am in the morning. It worked, but after practice when the endorphins wore off I remembered how my mistake cost four other men a shot at a good race. You move on though and keep racing, and striving to be your best.

2. An Ex-girlfriend reminded me of how I broke her heart when she told me she was moving to Atlanta

I dated someone in High School that I was really infatuated with, but realized I could never have a long distance relationship with her when I went to college over 700 miles away from my hometown. She did not have the same idea, and I broke her heart one day when I mentioned this out of the blue. Now here is where I add that I was also really immature during our relationship, so at the end of the day looking back on it she really should not have dated me for 13 months, and I am grateful she did. Fast-forward to about six months ago. We haven't spoken in at least three years, and she messages me out of the blue to say that she's moving down to Atlanta in a few months and wanted some suggestions on where to live. Unfortunately she is moved down to Atlanta after I left for Brazil, so I couldn't have a nice lunch with her to have a nice closure moment (which never really happened). That reminded me of the not so great person I was in high school and I kind of harped on that for a little bit in my mind. I still think about it from time to time I guess, but thankfully I'm with someone I love and I am good to and she is great to me.

1. Jose Mourinho called NYRB II a "Mickey Mouse team" a couple weeks after Chelsea lost to them in a friendly reminding them of that game.

Jose Mourinho called the New York Red Bulls a "Mickey Mouse team." #RBNY pic.twitter.com/cjbYqFR0hc

— B-Man Park Rangers (@brendan_joe) October 24, 2015

Apparently it is why they are bad this season.