Mistakes made…worse

It wasn’t long after I graduated high school before I realized that my teachers were right…math is a valuable life skill that would serve me well in the real world. If I had only listened…

I was fresh out of boot camp and arrived at my first base. I did all of the things you need to do to start your life in a new city, including opening a new checking account. I decided I would make the best of my military benefits and opened an account at the base credit union.

Everything was going great. I was getting settled in on my own, was gainfully employed and had a steady paycheck coming in. One afternoon I visited several shops on base and made a few purchases. None of the purchases were big ticket items, I put some gas in my car (back when ten bucks could fill your tank, ahhh…remember those days?), bought some snacks and couple of other little things. Now, keep in mind that this was before the invention of the debit card and I didn’t have any cash in my pocket, so I wrote a couple checks. Well, three checks to be exact.

Less than a week later, I received a notice from the bank. It turns out all three checks I wrote bounced. I went back through my check register to find out what happened. As luck would have it, I made a little math boo-boo. I forgot to carry the ‘1’ and ended up thinking I had more money then I actually did. Whoops. Well, I guess that is a life lesson. Pay day was coming and I figured I would get some cash and pay my debts. That’s the responsible thing to do, right?

The following day I was called up to the squadron commander’s office. My boss said that he wanted to talk to me about the recent “problems” I’ve had. When I reported to his office he began lecturing me about responsibility and how being an adult and serving my country required certain character traits.

To be honest with you, I don’t recall most of the conversation. It was a little too deep and I began to glaze over after “character traits.” I began thinking, “Is he for real!? It was a simple math error. Tthe total amount of the checks I bounced was only like twenty bucks! The bank fees are four times that!! Why doesn’t he go lecture the bank president? That’s where the real crime is. This guy is making it sound like I am embezzling millions!”

As he neared the end of his lecture I recall him saying “…and if you continue down this path, it will have a serious impact on your military career, and will follow you for the rest of your life. Do you have anything to say?”

What could I say? “I bounced a check…It was a stupid math error. I throw myself at the mercy of the court! Pleeaasseee don’t call the firing squad!” Nope. I did what any stupid kid that age would do. I reached into my pocket, pulled out my checkbook and held it up in the air saying:

“The bank must have screwed up! There is no way I’m out of money, look at all of these checks I have left!”

Yeah, he didn’t think it was funny either.