Mom’s Advice

Today I went to talk with David Woollard, who is working on his Ph.D here at the University of Southern California. The meeting went a bit long, so I was a little late to my next class: tennis. When I got there, I met Amber, the lady who was letting everyone know that the class was cancelled.

One of the students there then asked me: “Do you want to play?”

I was holding a new, unopened can of tennis balls that I was planning to turn in as per the class requirement. It was a can of 3 (there’s a little story behind it). For my birthday, I had gotten cans of 4, but the class only required a can of 3. So that would be a waste of 1 tennis ball. So I had one of the cans of 4 exchanged for a can of 3 so that I can turn it in for this class.

You see, if I had been holding a can of 4, I would have said, “Yes.” But since I was holding this can of 3, of which I had only one, I had to refuse. I considered the story that my mom told me about when she was taking tennis in college. She had to bring a can, too. It was only slightly different in her situation. She had arrived to class early, and opened her can of tennis balls to play with another student before class began. Wrong move: the can wasn’t supposed to be used in class, but rather, had to be turned in to the school for other uses.

So I didn’t play any tennis. Instead, I gave the can to Amber, who said she would place it on the tennis coach’s desk (I wrote my name on the can). We didn’t have any balls to play with now, so I just came back to my dorm, and decided to write this post about mom’s advice. If I don’t blog something, I have a hard time remembering it. Though this post isn’t well-written, I’m sure that people out there will find it interesting. I hope it has enhanced your thinking in some way.