The Catalyst of Irritation: How People Who Get on My Nerves Changed My Life

The Catalyst of Irritation:

How People who get on my Nerves Changed my Life

What do you do when a person gets on your nerves? How can society learn from the daily interactions that are usually considered negative interactions? I personally want to share my chronicles dealing with my irritable temper. Let’s take a look at the disturbance in the force in the realm of my feelings ; the U.S. Coast Guard brings me perspiration from my vexation, and how my grandmother constantly pursued unhappiness.

From the moment I walked into the room, I knew something was wrong. It’s just ask if I can sense a disturbance in the force in the realm of my feelings. I have this keen sense an almost a prophetic ability to foresee that something bad is going to happen. These people just make you feel uncomfortable from the moment they enter the room. Maybe they are yelling about their day, or have this long frown upon their face, but these people take everything that is wrong with them out on you! For example, while driving in California, I could see a car was racing ever closer behind me. Now I have no problem with people who are in a hurry. Who knows if it is really an emergency? Sometimes, I ignore these people, but this time it was different. My internal warning signal went off and told me to slow down and get into another lane. As I did this, the car sped up and slammed into the back of the semi truck that was in front of me. If I hadn’t listened to my intuition I could have been injured. It is these people that really get on my nerves! Always in a hurry, usually sweating the small stuff, why not slow down and enjoy the day so they don’t end up like this guy dead on interstate 80 in California!

My vexation brings me perspiration! While in the U.S. Coast Guard recruit training program known as TRACEN Cape May, I experienced the sweat producing moment of the century for me. These officers, enlisted, or former reservists, known as Company Commanders were tough, rugged, strict men and women! It didn’t matter if you were right or wrong. If it went against their order I was always wrong. My days consisted of about 12 to 18 hours of classes, meals, and beatings. These beatings were known as physical fitness training or punishment known as incentive training or “IT.” IT wasn’t about computers anymore but an acronym for torture! Several times the recruit company would come back from class or the mess hall and we would find our belongings in the locker were thrown out and the walls in the bathroom were marked with permanent marker! Every single tile on the floor and walls covered with this black marker. We were told that humor was not allowed in class and that this was our punishment, or that we failed to speak up loudly enough. And other times it was just to mess with our minds. Their was no reason as to why we had to have our belongings thrown around or given incentive training. We were told to clean up this bathroom so sparkling clean that this Company Commander could eat off the floor. One morning we were told to get showered, shaved, dressed, and ready to go all 50 of us in 10 minutes! This led to the disorder of the recruit company as a whole unit, working together. For the military wants order, discipline, and teamwork. Well this group of “individuals” these recruits were all for themselves at this point, not willing to assist others with uniform inspections, polishing shoes, or learning the nomenclature of the m1 garand rifle. So I came up with a plan, my counter defensive against this mainstream rebellion of recruits! I would assist my fellow recruits with polishing shoes, learning the Coast Guard history and more. Over time while in the bathroom, I taught myself to brush my teeth, shave, and relieve myself all at once! No one else had the hand-eye coordination to accomplish this because they were too afraid or just didn’t think it would matter. I was so proud of myself thinking, this will cut my time in half. Was I so wrong! The company commander came into the bathroom and asked me what I was doing. I confidently explained to him I was trying to get ready on time and help others! His eyes began piercing into my gaze. His voice became stern and deeper. Then, the yelling started getting louder. “Recruit Caverley, what do we have here? Our own ‘MacGyver ¹’ is here to save the day!” At first I took this as an insult, and of course I received IT training for it. You can never make a Company Commander satisfied if they don’t want to be! Over time the recruits started to call me MacGyver for my cleverness and even the company commander told me later on it was really a complement for my actions and that I should never give up and will become a great Coastguardsmen one day. He was right! When I was leaving the Coast Guard I received several awards from volunteerism, honor, and devotion to duty. The captain of my unit, the comanding officer as they are called, has written me a letter of recommendation that I still use today!

In my life, as I try to find a balance with the internal struggle of emotions I am put through, it seems that I can never avoid the next type of person who bothers me. These people have a goal of pursuing their unhappiness. They always find fault in everything they do. It’s the doom-and-gloom people who use the glass half empty versus the glass half full mentality. People like this are never satisfied or feel their work was in vain. For instance, my grandmother would always talk about her physical pain and how the world around her is falling apart. Time after time, this is all I would hear and it was starting to rub off on me. I was told one day by my youth pastor that I sounded like an old grumpy woman. When I was asked how I was feeling, I would mimic how my own grandmother spoke. This plague of cynicism is like a virus with no cure and I was diagnosed with it! Hearing this kind of banter, which my grandmother thought was just small talk and had no effect on herself or others, inflicted pain beyond what I can bear in my own mind. I cannot remain silent; I must say something that will halt the oncoming pessimistic attitude. Even if I can come up with a good come back, it is to no avail in my efforts to reach her. It is these people who truly get on my nerves. Why not look at the bright side of things? I guess they have gone so long acting on their unhappiness this habit will never change.

The resolution in my life is very clear to me. Since childhood, I have been told be keep my life transparent because others are always watching to see when I would fail. You may ask how this relates to people who get on your nerves. It is quite simple really. Without my intuition, this internal protection device, I may have not lived as long as I have. It really saved my life that day against the manic driver. How about the health and endurance I learned from recruit training? I ended up in better shape, and now can resist and think more clearly before I respond to anything asked of me. Let’s not forget that because of my grandmother I now can see the positive things in life. Now I don’t have to side with the negative; even though things do get bad I can see a way out. This following statement sums up my whole being: adversity is overcome when you let the hottest of fires in life forge you into the strongest of steel.

1 Plot Summary for
"MacGyver" (1985)

Angus MacGyver is a secret agent with a difference. He is quiet, mild mannered, deeply principled and refuses to carry a gun on his missions. Fortunately, the last detail is unimportant when compared to his astounding mind. Drawing on a vast practical knowledge of science, MacGyver is able to make use of any mundane materials around him to create unorthodox solutions to any problem he faces. The enemies of world peace and justice continually learn that underestimating this man is a fatal mistake for their plans. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088559/plotsummary