Well, I came home and told Cole about these cute, cheap, Christmas toys at PetSmart. So like any hip and fun couple we planned a date the following night and took our dog to PetSmart to buy her some festive stuff. Each toy was $1.47 and I bought 3 of them: a moose, a candy, and a reindeer. At this very moment, the candy is in the trash and I haven't seen the reindeer since yesterday morning. The moose and the candy were plushie/fleece and my dog has a knack for tearing the stuffing out of literally every toy she can (and her old dog bed). This wouldn't be a big problem but she likes to eat the stuffing and she has had enough trouble lately with her GI tract that she really doesn't need any more chaos going on there.
Every cheap toy I have ever bought her gets destroyed within in 2 days. Sure they are cute and fun for 48 hours but then they end up in the trash. A couple weeks ago she ate the fin off of a little red shark I bought for $1. Just today I threw away a tiger rope guy where she tore the stuff out of his face within 24 hours of owning him. We get him because he had a rope for a body but it turns out that was made of stuffing inside the rope. He was $3. Blue squeaker bone with rope ends? Shredded ropes in a week. It was only $5. Raccoon with ropes for feet? Rope torn out in 2 weeks. The raccoon is still intact but significantly less fun because it is hard to play tug of war with something a little bigger than a softball. He was also $5.
So here's the moral of the story: buy the $7 toys before you buy the $1.47 toys. Yes, they do cost more money. But they also last several months (they might last longer but I've only had the dog 6 months so I can't speak to the long term lasting effect here) longer than the cheap toys. You put a little more effort into buying quality toys and consequently they last a little longer. This also holds true in life.
I work in a division of Wells Fargo that handles loan servicing. I have worked there almost 6 months and I am working in my third process there. For one thing, we have hired close to 75 people in the last 2 months so I had to get moved to leave room for new people to do the starting process, but I also worked really hard at what I was doing in order to move up the ladder. Sure, my first process was ridiculously easy (borderline boring) but I did it with speed and did it right and was rewarded with more responsibilities. I got moved in 2 weeks. I got really good at the second process I worked in and was also moved on to the next process. With every bump step up on the ladder I get closer to the end of the process. There are several processes that make a up a single progression that makes sure people weren't overcharged for 2 lines on a closing disclosure (recording fees: yay government regulations!). In my current process I review the work of people who currently do my old jobs. I check for accuracy and then call settlements who are usually pleasant but occasionally annoyed about getting the customer money back. It's not fun to call and ask for a refund and it's certainly not fun to tell them if they don't do it we will do it for them and mark their noncompliance (I've only done that twice. Got refunds within the hour).
I guess this post is about investing in yourself. When I started writing this I wasn't sure where I was going with it. College students are coming up on finals and adults are closing in on the end of another year at work. It's too easy to cheap yourself out of hard work. Go the extra mile. Stay in the library or at your cubicle until the very end of the day. Hold yourself accountable to all the things you say you will do. Buy your dog the $7 toys. (Side note: beyond $15, the toys don't get exponentially better. You're paying for name brand at that point. I had a lot of free time in dog aisle once to notice this...) Sure the cheap toys in life are thrilling but they also disappear the fastest. Getting out of work early will seem like you are free but you end up leaving yourself more to do the following day(s). Sometimes my dog tries to dig her old toys out of the garbage can. You can't get back what you self sabotage-humans understand that but puppies don't.
Good luck on finals. Everyone makes it out alive. Just keep breathing and focusing on what you can control: your preparation. And best of luck to recent college grads who are not fully prepared to work so much over what has always been an extended break. Bring it on. Invest in yourself and be great.
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