Five years ago

Five years ago at this moment, I was half way through my very first shift at a temp job I had taken. I was tired, cold, and wet. My spirit was very low, and I was feeling extremely sorry for myself. I would only feel more and more sorry for myself as the evening went on. By the time I got home shortly after 5 am, I was pretty sure nobody had it worse than me. I crawled into my warm, soft bed, dreading the fact that I'd have to wake up eventually and go back there again.

At 12:10 pm, five years ago today, I awoke to my phone ringing. It was my mother. My wife and I, both working third shift jobs at that time, had slept through the events of that morning. My mom was the one to tell us the bad news. Two things happened for me personally from that point on. First, shame kicked in over how sorry I had felt for myself the previous evening. I still had it pretty good, and I had no write to feel sorry for myself. Second, I did not go back to bed. I went to our computer and spent almost every moment until I had to go to the work reading news and opinion updates on the internet. The way I framed political and world news changed.