The Day it Happened

The Day it Happened
949 words



I have had this immense smile clinging to my face since it happened. I finally pulled it off, even though people were always telling me it would never happen:

"It can't be done. Are you freaking insane, Jayson?" My girlfriend would say.

"If I couldn't do it, there's no way you will," my Mom would tell me.

"It can, and I will," I would counter.

I always responded like that, but to be honest, they were right. I never heard of it being done and I was at a total loss for how in the hell I would be able to pull it off. My Mom has been trying for as long as I can remember with no success.

I had been trying and failing also. In fact, I started getting so upset, I was picking up a bottle to drown my sorrows. I hated the abyss, "Why in the hell can't I do it!" I would yell while in a drunken stupor. This drive to succeed destroyed me and everyone around me.

“You’ve changed, Jayson!” My Mom would shout. “I don’t even know who you are anymore. What has happened to you? You can't let failure do this to you."

She was trying to motivate me and I loved her for that, even though deep down I knew she didn’t really believe it.

I could see the look on her face, and I had heard her cursing after the many times she tried and failed. I wondered then if it was hereditary. Was I doomed for a lifetime of failure?

I heard the horror stories of how people would literally go insane- wondering how it happened. Mankind is notorious for its fear of the unknown and I was no different, I was terrified too.

I remember my mom after several of these failures: sitting on the sofa, with her hair matted to her face by sweat, just staring at the floor and shaking her head:

“I don’t understand how it happened,” she would repeat over and over again.

“You okay, Mom?” I asked even though I already knew what was wrong; I had seen it so many times before.

“I did everything right, but it still happens,” she would answer, still shaking her head.

I also have seen it since on my girlfriend’s face, that look of confusion and a mixture of fear and disgust.

"Yo no entiendo como paso," she would mutter. The only difference between her and my Mom was that she makes her disconcerted comments in Spanish.

One day she decided she just couldn’t do it anymore, “I quit, I am so sick of this,” she said. “You do it from now on.”

So that is how I ended up here, the place where so many others have failed, including me until this day. Oh believe me though,  it took me several attempts before it finally happened. I almost gave up too. I thought to myself that maybe it was just one of those things that could not be done.

Today, I decided to play hooky from work. I was watching an HBO series called The Wire (one of my favorites), and I guess watching cops chase bad guys gave me the motivation to give it another shot. If they could catch the bad guys, then certainly I can do this.

So I did it, I got everything ready just like I had been shown by my Mom and my girlfriend. I called my girlfriend, “I'm going to do it, I feel good.This is going to be the day, wish me luck.”

“Good luck baby, I believe in you."

“Thanks, I will call you later.” As hard as I tried to hide the uneasiness in my voice, the more obvious it became. I wanted to change my mind, but I already told her I was going to do it...stupid...idiotic...bigmouth me.

It happened so fast, I was in a haze of doubt all the way until I realized that I did it.  I looked over it again to see if my eyes were deceiving me.

1…2…3…4…5…6.

“Oh my GOD!” I yell out loud. I opened my front door and yelled out in the courtyard to the gray sky looming overhead, ”I did it, I did it!”

I went back inside and started doing the MC Hammer, Can't Touch This, dance and then the Moonwalk. I was so excited. I was pulling out all the whiteboy dances of the Eighties and I didn't care who saw me. This went on for about 15 minutes before the shock of my accomplishment hit me. I sat back down on the sofa and just stared at it in silence....

I couldn’t believe I was looking at the coffee table and counting 6 pairs of socks. I had thrown 6 pairs of socks in the dryer and I folded 6 PAIRS of socks. The dryer finally gave me back all my socks.

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This is a funny little thing I just wrote up for fun. But this actually did happen to me today. Can you believe it? I still can't. I have always wondered how I always end up with one sock mismatched. Is there such thing as a sock monster, kind of like the cookie monster? Or is there a black hole that has millions of socks floating around it.
 
Well today I don't have to worry about that, all my socks have been returned to their proper home. I wish you luck in your future attempts at repeating my success story. Just remember if I can do it- you can do it.