I’ve never been that good with deadlines. That doesn’t just apply to my days in school, which I’ll expand on later. It also applies to work, this blog, and life in general. I do things at my own pace. I do things on my own time. I going to get things done, but they may not necessarily be done with a “normal” timeline.

At my age, I should be further along. I should have accomplished more. I should more to show for all that I’ve done. Right? By what standard? By whose standard? Why is there a standard? Things are turning around for me now in ways that they never have before. If things go as they’re expected/planned to go over the next few weeks, some really good news related to my job will be coming my way. Does it matter that it’s happening now and not five, or ten, or fifteen years ago?

When I was in high school, one of my teachers realized that the work that I was turning in was pretty good. It just wasn’t turned in on time. She pulled me aside after class one day and told that she would not take off that many points on my assignments if the quality of my work stayed as good. But, she also asked me not to abuse the privilege that was being given to me. I’ve always appreciated that gesture. It showed confidence in me and it was one of the first times that anyone ever allowed me the luxury of doing things at my own pace, without (much of) a penalty.

I’m aware that deadlines exist in the business world and they do need to be met. And I do meet deadlines for my job now. I’ve had various jobs over the years and it took me a while to realize the reasons for some of the deadlines, but I did realize them and it stuck with me. But, again, it took me a while to get there.

I’m not advocating for laziness in this entry. While some of my high school teachers did actually refer to me as lazy, the one that I talked about earlier realized something about managing people and expectations. Not everyone in a classroom learns at the same pace. They don’t learn the same way. No two people are alike. Standardized ways of doing things don’t always work. Individual people sometimes need individual guidance.

I know what I just said doesn’t always translate into success in corporate, retail, or some other professional situations. But, it’s a reality of society that needs to be focused on more often. Someone like me that is “far behind” where other people my age are, may only be behind based on standard ways of thinking that you were taught. I’ve done the best that I can with the situations that I’ve been handed. I’ve done the best that I can in the scenarios that life has given me. I’ve done the best that I can.

Now, many years after where others at my age can say that they’ve achieved a level success (again, that’s all relative), I’m likely to get there myself. It’s been a long process and I’m so incredibly optimistic about things for myself right now. It’s a weird feeling, but it’s a good one.

I am being intentionally vague about some things in this entry for various reasons. One of which is simply because my late June entry usually deals with my upcoming birthday and I always like to compare where I am against where I was in that entry. I feel that if I say too much today, I may take away from what I’ll have to say in the next one.

Another reason that I’m not really saying much in this entry is that it’s the last day of the month and I hadn’t really put too much thought into what I was going to write, other than the vague idea of deadlines. And since I’ve committed myself to publishing (at least) one entry per month, I’ve again, barely hit a deadline. I don’t know if this entry would qualify as the good work that my high school English teacher recognized that I capable of doing, but at least this one is on time.