Showing Up

     When people ask about what shows I watch or what shows I'm currently watching, I tend to be reluctant to answer or will give an easy default answer like The Office. The reason being that while most people are on Netflix watching shows like Stranger Things, Making of a Murderer, or The Crown, I've lately found myself on Netflix watching...The Magic School Bus again. Netflix has rebooted the show with The Magic School Bus Rides Again, but if you're one going to watch one you're better off watching the original (but I digress). If I had to pick a favorite character among the kids in Ms. Frizzle's class, it's an easy choice: Arnold Perlstein, the shy, not-so-brave, and fiercely loyal student to Ms. Frizzle that knows a lot about rocks and just wants things to be steady. You could say that he doesn't want to "rock" the boat (sorry, not sorry for that pun). With that in mind, it's no surprise that Arnold's catchphrase is "I knew I should have stayed home today" (or a variation of that). Considering all the crazy adventures Ms. Frizzle takes her class on, it's understandable why Arnold may feel that way and try to get out of field trips when he can.

     One of the reasons why I think Arnold is my favorite character is because he's easy to relate to. Just about everyone has been through times where they've felt the same way as Arnold: "I knew I should have stayed home today". Between working in food service and at an amusement park over the course of college, there were times I wished I had stayed home instead of talking up a game on a mic to guests or serving coffee and donuts/doughnuts to people. Truth be told, most people probably would prefer spending a rainy day or holiday at home. There's one obvious reason why that's the case: it's so much easier to stay at home.St. Canard's own Darkwing Duck once quipped that "some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed". Going off of my two college examples, it's so much easier to sleep in than go in to work at 6 AM to make and serve coffee to people and it's easier to stay home on a rainy day or hot summer day than go up to an amusement park and talk on a mic for hours about a game. But you know what? Showing up is important - even when we can't always see it or fully believe it. 

     So what's so great or important about showing up? Well, there's this one thing that when we don't show up to work, we don't get paid. There's also the more extreme case of getting let go when we repeatedly don't show up. However, showing up isn't just important at work though. There's things like school/classes, church, socials, etc. that are worth showing up for as well. In these instances, we may not face the same consequences for not showing up as we would with work, but there's still something valuable we can miss out on: the experience or general value of going. 

     With school, while we certainly can (and do) learn outside of the classroom,  there's a general value to going to class and having an idea of what's going on. In some instances, I had college professors that would provide an attendance incentive and you'd get extra credit for having perfect attendance or few absences. In one instance, that ended up being the difference between me making an A and a B+ in a class. Talk about a value to showing up. And even if there's no attendance incentive to going, there's still an intrinsic value to going to class -- especially in college when you're paying to go. 

     With church. while God certainly has a way of meeting us where we are, there's a true value to having that community, fellowship, and worship with others. We're not going to grow if we don't have others speaking in to our lives. This is also where I'll say that like socials, church is a great place to meet people and make friends. It's a lot easier to make friends when we show up to places like church, school, work, and other socials than if we just stay home. Granted, with the rise of the Internet and all that entails, it is possible to make all sorts of connections with people online. Still,  that in-person, face-to-face encounters with others simply can't be replaced by screens. 

     Depending on the source, Woody Allen once said something along the lines of this: "80 percent of success is showing up". Think about that: a lot of success can be attributed to merely showing up. One thing about that is that showing up involves saying "yes" and making a time commitment to something. Whether one goes out of interest or obligation, one is still making a time commitment to something. And when we show up to events, opportunities have a way of presenting themselves to us.There have been times in my life that I've stumbled in to opportunities because I showed up and brought a good and positive attitude when I did. Most of the friends I've made in Houston stem from taking a leap and showing up to church one day. It's also worth saying that people take notice about the small things like showing up. It's the smallest of things like showing up that can make the biggest of differences. And if nothing else, think about how when there's raffles/drawings you have to be present to win. As one saying goes, you snooze, you lose!

     Now to be clear here, "showing up" often entails more than just physically showing up. Showing up means showing up mentally/emotionally as well. You know, being fully present. Showing up means having a positive attitude and being ready to hit the ground running. There's a difference between showing up to work or class and being engaged than showing up to work or class and just playing on one's phone. Sure, one is "showing up" in both instances, but one will get more out of showing up when one's engaged or fully present. 

     To close, there was a story I read a while back that said when Mark Zuckerburg was first starting up Facebook at Harvard, he invited a handful of people to talk about it. Only two people showed up. The two that did are billionaires today. Talk about a (billion dollar) value to showing up. Although the difference between showing up and not showing up to something probably won't be billions of dollars, we never know what opportunities we miss out on by not showing up. Another perspective to have is this: think about all the opportunities we've been blessed with or where we've gotten to where we are today because we showed up to something.

     And hey, in one Magic School Bus episode, after Arnold takes a stand and saves his class from a T-Rex, one of his classmates quips "It's a good thing you didn't stay home today, Arnold!" There's always a value to showing up.

Showing up has its perks - like having a cool Fox Sports-themed desk