Who would have thought our instructor would be right...

[Heather Ballard]

When Brenda aka Siggy said in class on one of the first days.... "always leave your machine on a positive note" She was absolutely right!!! Last week on Wednesday, I thought I had passed a speed test, turns out I was writing crap and didn't even finish grading it... YEAH IT WAS THAT BAD!!! I was soooo upset with myself and very frustrated... I ended the day on a bad note on my machine and had to rush to work... that night I didn't feel like practicing... or the next day... and so on until Sunday I realized I hadn't done my homework yet... so I had to get on my machine and boy did I dread it... Of course Wednesday was just an off day, but leaving my machine on a negative left me procrastinating until the very last minute!!... So even if its is the alphabet or "The cat sat." write something you are good at!!

[Dana Mears]

Good point. It's so easy to "fight" with the machine and end the day without "making up." I go through this often. It's an emotional roller coaster sometimes. One thing I try to stick to, and I consider myself to be pretty decent at, is starting every day as a new day. Start fresh. Take yesterday, for example. We heard some awesome tests, but my fingers just wouldn't move right. I kept hitting all the wrong stuff. I don't know what was wrong with me. Clearly it was an "off" day. So after testing, I didn't feel like touching my machine again. But this morning I told myself it's a new day. I practiced for a couple of hours. Maybe not the best practice, but at least I got back on the horse, know what I'm sayin'? Just remember that we're going to have bad days - sometimes a lot of them - but taking too many days off in a row only does us more harm. Plus, the machine gets lonely. LOL

[Brenda Sigwald]

I must say "thank you" to Heather. Am I right? I hope so! I have found it is so true. It's just so hard to make up with the machine when all you did was write crap when you said goodbye. We all do it -- even working reporters do! We have bad days, but they come and go, I promise!!!!

Thanks, Heather. I do like to be right sometimes, although I know it's not often.....Siggy