When was the last time you were completely stumped by a question, a request, or a situation you found yourself in? How did you handle it?
As a reporter on courts, I spent many hours in the Court House waiting for news with different luck. Sometimes, after waiting for hours for a trial, there was no such a thing because the defence lawyers and the District Attorney had made a deal, or the judge had decided to suspend the hearing and postpone the trial because of the absence of some key witness, for instance, so there was almost nothing to write about.
One of those days I went to the Court House at 8 am for an important trial and it was postponed because a technicality. When my boss asked me in the afternoon about what happened I informed him there was little to write about the trial because it had been suspended. He was hoping for a long story and I only could offer a few lines.
Suddenly he asked me angrily so everybody could hear :
“Have you really been this morning in the Court House?”
As if I were making up an excuse to work less. he was accusing me to skip my job on purpose. His mistrust caught me off guard. He had no reason to doubt on me. I stood speechless for a moment. Then I told him :
“Where do you think I was at 8 am? Doing my job.”
I could call witnesses. My photographer could vouch for me.
Maybe it was only his frustration but for me it was not a curve ball, but a direct punch.