The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.


Worrying Myself Sick

By Mitch Worley, Quill Reporter

August 6, 2008

Have you ever had something on your mind that worried you so much that you got sick?

I had an incident whereas I had failed to keep track of just how much money I had in my checking account and relied too heavily on an automated system via a toll free telephone number my banking institution uses to let their customers know their balance and unfortunately it is rather fallible.

Last week, I paid my credit card balance off online (which is how I pay all of my bills because it's quicker than writing checks) and went to see if the payment had processed and how much I had in my account over the weekend.

In looking at the situation and crunching numbers before making the payment, I thought I had just enough money to pay that bill and another, before I got my next round of checks from both of my jobs, but it sounded as though I was wrong according to the automated system.

I've never been overdrawn and am feverishly obsessed with never being overdrawn, and I thought this was the instance where I was throwing away money for being careless with my record keeping.

Luckily and uncharacteristically, rather than worrying, I just went ahead and thought to myself, "What's done is done, and I can't do anything to change it now."

I played that card and didn't lose any sleep over it (which I normally would have, until I found out my fate the next day) and everything ended up working out and I actually had about $200 more in my account than I had anticipated even if I wasn't overdrawn.

Growing up is a crazy thing.

You hate the fact that you can't do a lot of the things you used to be able to do or loved to do with your friends that are hardly ever available to hang out anymore, but you start to gain some positives.

As you age, you gain wisdom, patience, and begin to worry less about things you can't handle.

Struggling with all of those attributes in my high school days lead to a great many sleepless nights, worrying about grades, if I was good enough to keep the love of my life by my side throughout high school and until we would someday meet at the altar, and if I would ever be able to figure out what I was going to do with my life.

When I realized my best is all I have, and there are just some things you can't control, life got a lot easier.

Maybe I can't be as effective on a basketball court and run up and down in the heat of the summer day after day in pick-up games anymore or play an entire organized sports season, but its nice to be worry free and keep on living that dream.