Insight: Persevering through banana peel realities by Lorraine Glowczak

Recently, while working at one of my side jobs, I overheard the term “banana peel reality.” I’m not quite sure what context that term was being used, but the instant I heard it I recalled something I learned over 25 years ago.

I have had many side jobs in my lifetime and one that I recall with fondness is my “jack of all trades” position working at a greenhouse and garden center in Topeka, KS. I remember the experience with fondness because my coworkers and I became family – not because it was an easy job filled with days of plant loving joy while experiencing the calming influence of the natural environment. That was far from the reality of working in a greenhouse.

Instead, the days were filled with back breaking work and all the employees would go home at the end of their shifts smelling like fungicide. On especially busy days, lunch breaks consisted of eating pizza with soiled and chemical laden hands while answering the phone or watering the plants, shrubs and trees under the hot Heartland sun.

I had always dreamed of working in a greenhouse, but it didn’t quite fit my vision of what it entailed – fun and delightful days among profusely blooming flowers. I still loved the job it was just that the realities of that life were a bit different than what I had imagined. This is where I learned about the so-called banana peel reality.

In the banana peel reality, it’s not that we slip and fall while reaching or living our dreams (although we often do) – it’s the fact that while we are living our dreams, the reality of it can slip us up sometimes, causing us to question our choices – even our goals. But this is where we must persevere during the unpleasant aspects and the uncertainties that come with the territory. (Of course, the opposite can also be true. You may discover that living your dream isn’t really your dream, after all. That’s another Insight topic.)

The banana peel reality happens almost everywhere – which leads me to a few articles for this week’s publication. I have witnessed in the past year the making of the farmers’ market that came into being this past Saturday. If you were able to visit last weekend, you would never had known all the hard work that occurred to make that successful day happen. But the dream of creating a successful farmers’ market by a few dedicated individuals made it through all those banana peel moments to the successful reality it became. The same can be said of the Summerfest that will occur on June 23^rd.

So, if you find yourself having a banana peel reality kind of day, I encourage you to hang in there – at least for a while. You never know what success may be on the other side if you persevere.