Sunday, September 11, 2016

My Heart Will Go On

In considering yesterday's race, it's possible that I may have been too hard on myself.

This is a typical problem for me. If I do a presentation and receive five positive comments and one negative one on the evaluations, I only remember the negative one. I've never in my life walked out of anything I've done, a play or a presentation or a workshop or a training, and not dwelled on something that I could have done better.

Now that I've had a good night's sleep and some time to think about it, I wondered if this might be the case. Just this morning, I asked my good friends Angelina Jolie:

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

Dolly Parton:

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

and Jennifer Lawrence:

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

if they thought I was being too hard on myself, while my friend Orlando Bloom asked to see my finisher's medal more closely:

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

Those two jerks from "Twilight" tried to see it, too, but I pretended not to hear them.

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

Angelina, Dolly, and J-Law suggested that yes, maybe I was dwelling excessively on the negative. Yes, I was unhappy with my race time, but that was partially my own fault, and I was definitely overlooking the fact that I finished at all. Lots of people wouldn't have.

Thinking about that, I asked a few more friends what they thought.

Brad Pitt wanted me to hit him, as hard as I could.

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

I wasn't really down for that.

James Dean thought self doubt was tearing me apart.

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

Maybe he was right. After all, Katie Perry thought I was a firework.

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

And Dale Jr. thought I was a champ.

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

Adam Sandler was slightly skeptical of this whole exercise:

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

Cameron Diaz was bored by the whole thing:

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

and I didn't really care what Shia LaBeouf had to say:

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

but Taylor Swift advised me to just shake this off:

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

and Tom Hanks reminded me that races are sometimes like a box of chocolates, and you never know what you're going to get:

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

I had a bad race, but it's not the end of the world.

As Channing Tatum and I stared off into the distance, contemplating the race after this one:

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

Jack Dawson reminded me to never let go:

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

and I decided that yes, my heart will go on.

Pigeon Forge Hollywood Wax Museum

There's another race after this one, and I'll do better.

But I also completed this race, and that's also an achievement.

2 comments:

Marcheline said...

Way to go, Joel. You powered through, despite uncomfortable circumstances and uncooperative shoes!

Is it just me, or should wax figures be SO much better, considering the technology they have to work with these days? Those are some fugly replicas!!! Anyone that is so bad at wax figures that they make Brad Pitt look unattractive needs to go back to wax figurine school. Srsly. At least the wax Dolly Parton is lifelike, because she is actually made mostly of wax these days. Bless her heart.

Joel said...

I didn't even take a picture of the Ryan Gosling one, because it was SO BAD.