It had been a week or so since I moved into my new apartment, and I still hadn’t gotten the keys to my mailbox unit yet. The building manager told me that he would give me the key a couple days after I moved in, but he ended up having some scheduling issues and needed to give me the key at a later date. 

Fine. So I waited a couple more days, and when there was no communication from his side, I reached out again. He didn’t respond to my message, and randomly, a week later appeared at my apartment when I wasn’t at home, asking if I was there to get the key. 

I tried to be cool about it, but I can’t lie, I was quite angry. I felt like the communication and behavior from his side wasn’t professional, and I was annoyed that I had to wait so long to get something I should’ve gotten when I moved in. 

When I went to finally open my mailbox and see what was in there, the key wouldn’t work at first. It kept getting stuck, so in a moment of frustration, I just turned the key as hard as I could, and accidentally bent the key out of shape. After a brief moment of panic, I was able to quickly bend it back into shape (thankfully), but that whole moment definitely made me pause a bit. Why was I so angry? Yes, obviously the building manager was at fault for not doing his job properly, but at the end of the day, no one was going to get hurt or be in danger because I got my mailbox key a little bit late. 

Imagine if the key didn’t bend back into shape. How embarrassing it would be to have to text the building manager “Hey, I need a new key because I accidentally twisted the key so hard that it doesn’t work anymore” a couple hours after receiving it. In the midst of all the craziness in my life, I think this moment was a reminder that it’s okay to take things a little bit slowly and not take everything so personally, especially when it’s not a life or death situation.

Sometimes I have a tendency to just try and force my way into things without thinking. If something’s not working on the TV, I’ll just turn it on and off several times until the thought comes to me that there might actually be a better solution to whatever problem is at hand. It’s like I’m one of those wind up toys that keeps crashing into the wall because it doesn’t know how to change it’s path. I’ll force my way into things and just expect them to work.

It’s something I’m trying to work on. I know I can’t walk through life bending keys and expecting them to bend back for me. I want to be more intentional with my actions and approach situations more peacefully without anger.