Handling bad news

Bad News | The New Yorker

A girl had gone away from home to go to college, and while at college, she wrote her parents a letter that said,

"Since I left for college, I've been remiss in writing, and am sorry for my thoughtlessness and not having written until now. But I'll bring you up to date now. But before you read on, please sit down.

Are you sitting down? Don't read unless you're sitting down!

Well, am getting along pretty well now, the skull fracture concussion that I got when I jumped out of my dormitory window when it caught on fire shortly after my arrival here, is pretty well healed. I only get those sick headaches that I've been having now once in a while instead of everyday.

Fortunately, the fire in my dorm and the jump was witnessed by an attendant at the gas station.

He ran over, took me to the hospital and continued to visit me there.

When I eventually got out of the hospital, I had no where to live because of the burnt-out conditions of my room, so he was kind enough to invite me to share his basement bedroom flat with him.

It's sort of small but cute. He's a very fine boy and we've fallen deeply in love and are planning to get married. We haven't set the exact date yet but it'll be before the pregnancy begins to show.

Yes, Mum and Dad, am pregnant.

I know how much you're looking forward to being grand parents and I know you will welcome the baby and give it the same tender care and devotion that you gave me when I was a child.

The reason for the delay in our marriage is that my boyfriend has a minor infection that I carelessly caught from him. I know, however, that you will welcome him in our family with open arms.

He is kind, and although not well educated, he is very ambitious. Although he is of a different race and religion than ours, I know that you've often expressed tolerance which permits you not to be bothered by that at all.

In conclusion, now that I have brought you up to date, I want to tell you, Mum and Dad, that there was no dormitory fire, I didn't have a concussion or skull fracture, I was not in the hospital, I am not pregnant, I am not infected and there is no boyfriend in my life.

However, I am failing history and science and I wanted you to see this in proper perspective."

Story extracted from this Joyce Meyer podcast episode.

The parents must have been relieved at the end of the letter, and might have simply encouraged their daughter to work harder. However, if the daughter just called in and directly said she was struggling with her studies, they might have blown out in anger about her unseriousness.

Now, this story obviously is not to encourage students to take their academics for granted, but it is to give us a funny reminder that what we are dealing with right now as very bad news could have been worse.

Maybe you lost your job, or sadly lost a child, a marriage, a friend, got bad grades, unexpected pregnancies, theft, or whatever it is that life might have thrown at you, just know that it could have been even worse.

If you lost your job, remember that there is a job-seeker who has never had one; or if you lost a child, another person has never had and might never have one; perhaps you got bad grades, someone has never been to school.

Yes, our own troubles tend to hurt so deep because maybe they are the worst we have personally experienced, but remembering that things could have been worse reminds us that it's not the end of the world, that we shall not only go through it, but grow through it too.

On average, the year 2020 has so far proven to be really tough, but it could have been worse. We thank God that we can grow through it.

Happy Wednesday to you.

Thank you so much for passing by.

Meet again next Wednesday, God bless you!