My hair dryer exploded.
Literally sparks came out of the little box where it plugs into the wall. I smelled that weird electrical fire scent and sniffed the outlet several times, in between applying concealer and mascara.
I stopped short of texting my husband, who was traveling for work. Because what could I say?
“Hey, honey. There might be fire in the wall.”
There wasn't. I'm lucky like that.
Even luckier, my hair was about 98% dry when it happened.
Best of all, “buy new hairdryer” finally made it to my list.
The thing had been broken. For a while. Like at least two years. And I'm not just talking about that melted part where it got overused while defrosting the freezer (because household appliances must multi-task to earn their keep around here). The mechanism that holds the handle together had broken too. Maybe after one of the times I dropped the dryer on the tile floor.
For a week or two after I broke the handle, I had been determined to get a new dryer. But that task never made it to the list. Because, in time, I learned how to hold the handle just right so that the experience of drying my hair was almost the same with the damaged tool as it had been before.
I spent all those years accommodating something broken, holding it just so in order to make do. Not only because buying a new one never made it to my list, but also because why did I need a new one when this one still worked?
I take a certain pride in making do.
It's seeded deep within me. Which is why it took an explosion to make me take action. An interior designer once assessed my house and declared, "Well bless your heart, you're just using what you have." I didn't know there was another way.
I'm not alone. I have a friend who asked a group of us to hold her accountable for buying new shoes because, although she had been back to work in an office for over a year, she had been "making do" in her wardrobe.
My new hair dryer is slick. It's light. It's precious.
Sometimes I make do because I'm lazy or attached to the way things used to be. Moving beyond making do requires facing change. And change is hard.
When you're merely making do with the physical objects in your life, you might be doing the same with your creativity or your ambition. Think about it. Do something about it.
Where are you just making do? I can help.
