Nobody Wanted to Carry the Couch Upstairs

I moved last week, and it didn't go the way I planned.

The movers got everything out of my old place and into the truck, then stopped to grab lunch.

My new apartment is close by, so I walked over to meet them there.

When I walked in, the elevator was out.

Maintenance called the company that services it, and they had no idea when someone could come fix it.

Could've been an hour, could've been the whole afternoon.

That meant everything was going up the stairs.

Every box, the couch, the kitchen table, the bed, the dresser.

I sent the movers a heads up so they wouldn't be blindsided when they pulled up.

By the time they got there, I'd already made up my mind that I was going to carry stuff with them.

I wanted to get it done faster, sure.

But I also couldn't picture myself standing in the lobby on my phone while they hauled my furniture up the stairs.

So we just started going.

I lost count of the trips.

The dresser was the worst of it, and I'm still not sure how we got it around that last turn.

Honestly, it felt like a football workout.

Back at Tulane there were days your legs were gone and you kept going anyway because the guy next to you hadn't stopped yet.

This was that, except with a couch.

Somewhere around the 30th trip up, I wanted to quit.

I was tired and sweaty and I didn't want to be there.

But if I sat down, the movers would be at it twice as long, and that didn't sit right with me.

No job is beneath you.

I think about that one a lot.

When I played, you didn't leave your tape and towels on the locker room floor for the equipment guys to pick up.

You picked up your own stuff.

Nobody had to tell you twice, and if they did, you heard about it from your teammates.

It's the same at work.

If you finish the coffee, make another pot.

If there's a part of a project nobody wants, don't just pass it down to whoever's newest.

Take a piece of it yourself.

You see it in schools too.

I've watched principals stop in a crowded hallway to pick up a wrapper while hundreds of kids walk by, and I promise you those kids notice.

They pay a lot more attention to what you do than what you say.

Most of the time nobody's asking you to pitch in.

You just see the stairs and decide you're not going to stand there and watch.

Aaron