This, too, shall pass

Feb 20^th, 2025 Thursday Sunny

Yesterday I had a remote interview.

It was supposed to be on Teams, the same channel as the one from the same company two weeks ago. The one before worked perfectly fine. Just to be sure, I had a test call with my husband on Tuesday – no issues.

But during the interview yesterday, Teams refused to connect me, regardless of how many different browsers I tried. I contacted the interview coordinator via phone, yet over twenty minutes we were unable to find a viable solution. In the end, we had to reschedule it.

That was only the beginning of my misfortunes.

I went out to grab some groceries, and to my surprise, pork, a common staple at the Asian store I frequent, was nowhere to be found. The only available kind was some random meat marketed as “heart-protecting flesh” (not the most appetizing, I know), at the same price as the shoulder meat that I usually get. Frustrated, I decided to pass on it, hoping there is still some stock left in our freezer.

After going home, we started cooking dinner – Korean radish miso soup with soy puffs. When I took the soy puffs I bought less than two weeks ago out of the refrigerator, my husband frowned.

“These…look questionable,” he sniffed one, “with a weird smell.”

He was right. I examined the whole package, and they had all gone bad.

This must be one of those days where everything seemed to go wrong.

Even though I was feeling down, I forced myself not to dwell on it further. After all, there was nothing I could do to improve the situation. While it appeared that all is bleak, I have traveled on the road long enough to know that, this, too, shall pass.

It is just one of those unlucky moments in life. It felt as if the universe is against me, OR some mighty god is willfully testing my endurance. I remember days like this in my youth, when I cried like crazy, believing myself to be cursed, and blaming the heaven for its injustice.

Now, however, I only let out a few kitty-like groans, squeezed Sesame a couple of times (he did not protest – how sweet!), and ate a homemade chocolate Ferrero to pick up my mood.

No, I did not dull my senses. I still feel pain when really painful events happen, and my tears run free whenever I hear or watch something touching. Nevertheless, I have learned that I am NOT that significant to be the intentional target of adversity. Sometimes I roll a twenty-sided die and I end up with one – the chance is small, though it almost definitely happens if you keep rolling the die. Unless the die is biased, the result cannot always be low, right?

So I shrugged it off. I focused on tasks within my control – knitting, feeding and petting my kitties, and hugging my husband. I trust that however severe the storm is, peace will eventually resume. And until then, I will keep my cool and smile.