A funny story

On Friday, I was working at the Welcome Desk on the SIL campus. One of the tasks I was to do is to call the "donut person". One of the donut shops in town donates donuts left at the end of their day (about noontime) to the campus... we just need to bring trays from the cafeteria and pick them up.

So, I called the guy who was the "donut person", but he didn't answer. I left a message asking him to call to confirm that he was going... but he didn't. It was getting near noon, and I had not found anyone else to get the donuts... so I decided that I could do it. I hadn't done it before, so I got a quick task description, and took off for the cafeteria to pick up the trays.

When I showed up at the cafeteria, the manager looked at me as if she thought I was there to work on the dining line... I told her that I could come back and work the dining line, but right now, I needed to get the donut trays. She was helping me get the trays that I needed, when another cafeteria worker kindly asked me if I needed a meal to go since I probably wouldn't get lunch. I said, "No, that's ok."

The cafeteria manager then said to me, "I am going to need to teach you how to say 'no'."
I contritely said, "Oh, I should have said, 'No, thank you.' I'm sorry, I will do better next time."
She said, "No, I mean, around here, lots of people will ask you to do tasks for them. You can't do them all. You need to say 'no' sometimes!"

I got the giggles, because I really thought that she was being a "mom" and reminding me to say "thank you"!!!

I safely found my way to the correct donut shop, took the trays in and got them loaded with the donated donuts, and then delivered them back to the appointed spots on campus -- AND made it back to the cafeteria line by about 12:10pm, in time to help with at least part of the lunch rush!

So far, I'm thoroughly enjoying everything I am either being asked to do, or volunteering to do (in the case of the donut runner, I volunteered). I was thinking when I finished up at the Welcome Desk on Friday, as I was walking across the campus -- what a wonderful feeling it was to leave "work" and not feel that I have left anything unfinished, as the job is just being there and taking care of the things that come up... so no feeling that I should stay longer to finish up some additional tasks!

I am, indeed, wonderfully blessed!