Expensive Mistake

My expensive mistake

I’ve always had a pretty positive outlook on living life and on our ability to recover from making mistakes. Often times when we make mistakes, we can rectify the situation. In other cases we cannot. This week I learned about a pretty expensive kind of mistake to make.

I must have been having one of those mornings, I woke up feeling a bit run down and crappy, my ankle which I had sprained not long before was swollen and in pain. Needless to say, I was not really in the mood for going to work. As I was arriving and pulling into the parking lot I went to park in a space and as I did the front of my car managed to rub slightly against another parked car. I managed to recover quickly enough so as to minimize the contact but I could not believe what had just happened.

I had never been at fault for a driving incident. My heart sank and I needed to find out who the owner of this car was. Immediately questions starting popping up in my head.

“Will they be pissed off?”

“Do they work in the same office as me?”

“Is it really bad?”

“Will I have to pay for this?”

“How much will it cost?”

There were still others, though I doubt that if the above questions did not get the point across, neither would they. So I found out the owner of the car did not work in the same office – thank goodness. He also was very understanding about the situation – thank goodness. We went together to get an estimate on the damage and when I saw the figure I was quite surprised – not so thank goodness.

I have spent the last few days wishing I could take back that brief moment – that brief error in judgment, I wished I could just say I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean for that to happen and that it would resolve the issue. Reality is a slap in the face at times.

Despite having to fork over a lot of money for this mistake there are a few things I can take from this situation. One is that happiness is not money. I am relieved that my car sustained no damage, that the person I dealt with was understanding and cooperative and that I’m okay. The reason I was upset was the fact that I had inconvenienced someone and that I’d be “wasting” a load of money on something I’d rather not be spending my earned cash on. To reduce the inconvenience I’ve offered the individual extra transportation if necessary during the time that his car will be in the shop.

So I’ve done what I can to reduce the inconvenience caused for the other person. All that’s really left is the fact that I’ve blown money. It’s depressing to know that I’ve worked the last little while so that I’d be able to cover my own butt for a mistake. What has happened, has happened. There’s nothing else to it. The good news for me is that money does not equal happiness. As such, I am trying not to view this loss of some of my savings as a loss of happiness. For the next little while I’ll be extra paranoid when parking near anyone, knowing that the tiniest mark can be an expensive mistake.