Nova Daily - 4 June 2025: Showing up late
Hi!
We're running into the final hours of the finale of Season 8 of BlogChamps. We're short of only one blog, but that one might pop in late. I've already said a lot about procrastination, the positive and negative sides of doing things at the last minute, and at this moment I have nothing to add to what I've already written in terms of my thoughts about this. Save for one personal anecdote that I'd like to share here.
Showing up late
I have a lot of experience as a procrastinator. During a lot of education projects I've worked towards the deadline. I could kid myself, but I simply don't have a golden touch when it comes to working under pressure with the deadline in sight. I can best start much earlier, prepare for a very long time, and finish in time. I've had many points subtracted from my assignments because of this, but this wasn't enough to change my attitude.
I used to arrive late for my team matches as well. This was getting on the nerves of several of my teammates. Prior to one match, when we had to play an away match, I was late yet again. My former trainer, the person for whom I've always had the greatest respect, exploded in my face. That I was a disgrace to the team, that this was lousy sportsmanship, and that he'd make sure I'd be dismissed from the team if I ever showed up late for a team match again.
That was quite the punch in the face. And that was even before the match had started.
I completely deserved this treatment. Being late is simply disrespectful, as is missing deadlines. I might've known that all along, but it's quite a different matter to let it sink in and act on it.
I might return to talk about this match some other time if my other topics run thin, because there's quite more to say about that specific match. My former trainer and I did reconcile before the match was over.
Save for unforeseen circumstances, I've never showed up late to a team match ever again since that day.
The game
At times it can take forever to get my game going, but today I got my opponent straight away. And not just an opponent but someone that I had encountered a couple of times before. One game I got swept off the board like an idiot, and in the other game I botched a completely winning endgame with one dumb move. I knew that this opponent must be beatable.
It must be acknowledged that my opponent did well on their rating increase since our previous encounter. I have my suspicions that my opponent had played a fair bit more than I had. If anything, it was nice to match wits with this opponent again. They said hi in the beginning of the game, which I returned.
Nothing against my opponent, but this felt like I played a really good game and deserved the win. I made the decisions that are in line with what the position demanded of me, fought with what I had, and the chips fell as they did. It all worked out in the end.
