I am not good with computers. I know how to use Microsoft Office, but that's about it (being a medievalist doesn't really require me to be computer-savvy). So, I was a bit bummed when I could not get online the other day to do research. It kept saying there was some sort of error. So I played around with the computer for an hour; refreshing, rebooting, clicking and unclicking, cleaning, anything to get the internet going again. I felt myself grow increasingly frustrated; frustrated at the computer and frustrated with myself for not being able to fix it.
Eventually, I stepped out and away from the computer, and I heard someone say that the internet was down in the entire building. It wasn't just me, and it wasn't my fault! I was very relieved, and I knew that the higher ups would get it going again (8 hours later they did, and I got a lot of other work done in the meanwhile).
This got me thinking. A lot of times we are so self-critical about flaws, what we've done and what we could've done right, when it turns out a higher force or incident was affecting us. Sometimes the server crashes, and it is not our fault. We cannot help it when our runs are slowed down by outside forces (bad weather, digestive issues, etc), or a server fails and threatens to halt our work. The important thing is to remember that we are not always the ones to blame. Why are we so self-critical? I assumed that this was entirely my fault, even though I hadn't done anything wrong (I didn't download anything funny or click on a pop-up). Sometimes problems just take time to fix, and we have to let go and accept that.
I didn't anticipate that the inability to get online would cause so many thoughts, but I think this did teach me something. We are always trying to do our best, and even when we try our darndest, the server can occasionally fail. We just need to be patient, and it will reboot again, be up to speed and ready to go again.
No comments:
Post a Comment