This has not been a good week for me.
First, I narrowly avoided falling off a stepladder while hanging curtains. The next night, I managed to scratch up my eye pretty impressively in the attempt to remove a contact lens (badly enough to require an emergency room visit). And to cap it all off, two days later, my house was broken into and I lost my wallet (and thus all my cash and credit cards), and my smartphone.
Those were the main events, but their consequences were also less than helpful: not being able to access my money or top up my Internet access were particularly frustrating. It seemed that no matter what I did, there was some new hassle waiting around the corner.
What I’m starting to wonder, though, is whether this has all been some kind of exercise in asking for and receiving help.
I’m pretty good at giving help, less good at receiving it, and downright pathetic at asking for it. I always feel like people have enough problems of their own and don’t need to have to deal with mine as well. If relations with the person in question are fraught, that goes double, so when I emailed my ex to let him know he wouldn’t be able to reach me by phone for a bit, I was surprised and pleased when he offered to withdraw some cash for me to tide me over until my new cards arrive. Then, when my pay-as-you-go internet ran out this morning and I found that I could only restore it online with a card, I was horrified at the thought that I might have to ask him to do that for me as well.
Before I contacted him again, though, I recalled that my next-door neighbour, who let me use her phone to call the police right after the break-in since my phone was gone, had said that I could contact her if I needed anything. I decided to take her at her word, and knocked on her door. She was more than happy to let me give her cash in exchange for using her card to restore my access, and we had a nice chat.
As if the point hadn’t been made clearly enough yet, when I got back online, there was an email waiting for me from a family member, who was very supportive and offered to loan me some money. In the past, I might have been quick to dismiss that kind of thing, but not now, not after the week I’ve had.
It makes me wonder if there have always been resources available to me that I’ve been too afraid or too oblivious to utilize. I suspect so.
When I Googled “Accepting help”, I got over 350,000 hits. Clearly I’m not the only one with this issue. What sources of help or support are you missing out on?
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