Learning life skills at the Sun

After more than a year writing for Saratoga Sun, I am officially moving on and heading back to the big city soon. It has definitely been a nice trip and I’ve met a lot of great people, but being a young single guy, it’s time to move on to other opportunities in a place with more people. I have definitely had a lot of fun covering all the summer and winter gatherings here, and of course, all the high school sports events running from August through May. I made a lot of good friends and will always hold a lot of memories from this Valley.

After typing that opening paragraph, I know what you’re all thinking right about now. You’re expecting another sappy column on how I learned to appreciate small-town Wyoming life, or how I’ll be sad to leave all the great high school kids or sports events I’ve worked with. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with another one of those. Instead of focusing on everything I’ve done in the great outdoors or with the local high school kids, I’m going to focus on what I’ve learned just from being stuck here in the office. I’ve found you can learn a lot that will improve your life in general, simply by listening to and speaking with your co-workers all day.

I think the number one thing I have learned the most by working here is how to take constructive criticism. Before I started working here, I was kind of a sensitive guy. I was quick to take what was supposed to be helpful criticism as personal attacks, and sometimes refuse to believe it if I didn’t like what I heard. Now, I pretty much look at all criticism, unless it includes outright insults, as keys to improvement. The same thing applies to jokes or sarcasm. I used to be easily offended by comments that were snarky yet intended as humorous, so I’ve learned to laugh at myself a lot. I’ve learned that here in the Saratoga Sun office, if you don’t develop a thick skin and laugh at yourself, you’ll drive yourself insane.

Another thing I’ve learned here is how to not hold grudges. I used to be the master at grudge-holding, and could still be mad at someone over something they had forgotten about long ago. However, now I can get over stuff quite quickly. There have been moments in the office where we’ve all been blowing up at each other left and right, especially on stressful Tuesdays, which are our days to get the paper out. I can now take the brunt of it and move on after five minutes. In fact, I’m sure there have been several famous blow-up moments here in the office that I’ve now forgotten all about.

I’ve also done the same thing in return. I can blow up at one of my three co-workers and overcome the guilt in five minutes, knowing they’ve forgotten about it and can look at me as “Good Ol’ Duggie” again in the same timespan. I used to be deathly afraid of getting mad at someone or hurting someone’s feelings, but after watching my co-workers get mad and quickly get over things, I’ve learned to both dish it all out and take it all in. The fact that we’re all pretty good friends here in the office plays a huge part in that. We know that none of us ever go home from work hating each other, either from taking something too personally or feeling bad about being too hard on someone else.

Lastly, I’ve learned to be more opinionated and stand up for myself. I used to agree too much with everyone, just to be nice and not make anyone upset, and I never proved myself or why I thought I was right. Now, I have no problem telling a co-worker why I think my idea is a good idea or event better than theirs. I am no longer afraid of what someone might think about what I have to say, or possibly being the lone man who agrees with it. If an idea or statement of mine gets shut down for understandable reasons, I just move on feeling more confident. Knowing that I spoke my mind feels much better than having a good idea and not saying anything.

So, even though I’ve definitely learned a lot of useful skills for my next job, most of them are personality-related rather than work related. However, sometimes those types of skills learned are what can help you the most in the workplace. I learned that if you take things too personally and can’t laugh at yourself, you won’t survive working just anywhere or with any personality type. If all of us can learn or actually do what I’ve learned here at the Sun, I guarantee we’d all be part of a happier nation.