Hi everyone! I have been going through somethings in my personal life that were slowly changing my way of thinking. As humans, we are so used to looking at the negative side of things. I was slowing falling into that routine of only looking at the inconveniences of things that life brings us. Three weeks ago, I received my jury duty summons and I got more upset when I saw that I was on-call on my week of Spring Break from work. I was bummed out. If you know me very well, you know that I try to take advantage of my vacation time to travel and do fun things.
It was my turn to explain to the judge and I said, "Your honor, I am blessed to have a job that will allow me to be here with you but the real reason I cannot serve on this particular case, is not my job, but my mother. My mom is having knee surgery in two weeks and my supervisor has granted me permission to be with my mom and help her while she recuperates." The judge said that he understood and granted me a postponement to return in July.
I called in and the operator said that my group wasn't scheduled to appear on Monday morning. I used that day to file my taxes and visit my aunts. On Monday evening, I checked the county superior court website and I saw clearly that I had to report on Tuesday morning at 8:00 am.
I woke up bright and early and reported to jury duty. I was selected to a courtroom and the judge was nice and pleasant. He was a perfect mixture of a great sense of humor and seriousness, which I think are two important qualities for a judge.
He explained how long the case was going to be and asked who would be available to serve in this case. To my surprise, twenty persons stood up and claimed that they were available. The rest of us had to explain our reason for not being able to serve. One after the other, people explained to the judge that they would experience financial hardship if they were taken out of their jobs for almost three months. Men and women took the microphone to declare that their jobs would not allow them to serve as a juror. That's when I realized how truly fortunate I am to work in a place that will pay me to serve and perform my civic duty.
It was my turn to explain to the judge and I said, "Your honor, I am blessed to have a job that will allow me to be here with you but the real reason I cannot serve on this particular case, is not my job, but my mother. My mom is having knee surgery in two weeks and my supervisor has granted me permission to be with my mom and help her while she recuperates." The judge said that he understood and granted me a postponement to return in July.
As I walked away from the court to hand in my temporary badge, I began to feel grateful that I am one of the lucky ones to have a job that allows me to serve and my paycheck will not be affected.
I am training my brain to look at the brighter side of things. I strongly believe that there is a silver lining in every bad situation. I have made it my focus to be more grateful and to search for them more deliberately. I challenge you to do the same.
As always, thanks for reading!
Mayra :)
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