I have pondered over this and struggled with it, and I just cannot come up with a Mac or computing angle. This e-zine is about the personal computing experience, and all I have is a personal experience to relate. It has no computing angle. But it is a good story, I hope.

A week or so after this issue goes to press, I will be taping an episode of the TV quiz show Jeopardy! Probably. Maybe more than one. It depends on how it goes. I’ll include a note in a few months when we get closer to the airdate. In the meantime, I thought maybe a few of the strategies I’ve used to prepare for this would be helpful for you, in some part of your life.

• You get to decide who you want to be. You are not required to live up to the expectations of everyone around you. You can pick and choose which ones fit. You can set your own.
• Learning is a daily endeavor. If we just soak up a little bit each day, some of it will stick. It will make us more well rounded and better able to see things from other angles.
• Fear of failure is seldom a good enough reason not to try. If it is skydiving, I’ll give you that. If it is meeting someone new or trying a new sport, not good enough.
• Fear of success is more insidious than fear of failure. If you try something and do it well, people will think you are always going to do it well. Drat them. Why’d they have to set you up so high, anyway? It ends up being a fear of failure anyway, so see the previous rule about only skydiving and such.
• Goodwill toward your fellow human beings makes you feel better. I’d like to say your goodness toward others will come back to you, but then you might be doing it for the wrong reason. But it does. A lot.
• Stuff is only important if we attach meaning to it. Give yourself permission to relax and not make everything so crushingly important.
• Pitchers and catchers are reporting. Every baseball team has the same record. Fans of all the teams have hope. It is good to give ourselves a fresh start now and then.
• Once a year, go somewhere.
• Every day, a little at a time, you can become the person you want to be. If you are already that person, congratulations! Well done. If you are still a work in progress, so are most of us. Keep plugging away, and eventually you will get what you deserve.

For me, getting on Jeopardy! is the result of some of these ideas. I may not have articulated them to myself all along, or to others, but they have been there. I have one chance in three of winning a game. I like those odds. If I don’t win a game, I know I will learn something I can tell one of my other game-show friends that will help them if they get on. That’s how it works. We help each other with lists of things to study, suggestions about what to wear, and encouragement. Then one day all the goodwill you’ve shown to others comes back and bites you on the rear. In a good way.

Something to look forward to, maybe.

Onward.

Copyright © 2005 Ellyn Ritterskamp, eritterskamp@atpm.com.