Behind the Sticker: Green Pools Happen to Good People

Every spring, we open the pool and get it all sparkling blue and beautiful, and we think: this year, we are going to stay on top of it.

And we do, for a while.

Then, somewhere after the Fourth of July, people aren't swimming as much. We get busy. We go somewhere for the weekend. It rains. The pool gets a little cloudy, so we add something to it. Then that does something weird, so we add something else, and next thing you know—

The damn pool is green.

Which is what happened to us this summer.

Normally, this would just be an annoying pool story, except it happened at almost the same time I was spending half my summer applying and interviewing for a promotion I really wanted, only to be turned down.

I was disappointed. I was exhausted. I was embarrassed.

Everyone knew I wanted the job. Now, everyone knew I didn't get it. I had to go back to work and talk to people who knew. There is something really vulnerable about wanting something badly, having it not work out, and knowing other people can see it.

And apparently, just to really drive the point home, now they could see my green pool too.

That's when I remembered someone I used to know whose neighbors let their pool go green every summer, without fail. Every year she'd say, "They let that pool go green again," in a tone that always sounded pretty judgmental.

Like the green pool told you something about them.

This summer, standing in front of my own green pool, that memory hit differently.

I knew exactly what had happened while ours was turning green. We were living our lives. We hadn't stopped caring. We hadn't decided, you know what would really improve the backyard? Algae. We had the best of intentions. We were doing our best.

And the pool went green anyway.

That's the part I needed to understand.

Sometimes you have the best of intentions. You show up. You care. You work hard. You do your best.

And sometimes the pool still goes green. Sometimes the thing you really wanted doesn't work out.

And when everybody can see the outcome, it's really easy to feel embarrassed — or worse, ashamed — because maybe someone looking over the fence is judging you. Maybe they think you didn't try hard enough, or you should have done something differently.

Or maybe nobody is thinking any of that, and you're doing a perfectly good job of judging yourself.

We are all walking around seeing little pieces of other people's lives — the green pool, the overgrown lawn, the unanswered text, the messy desk, the thing they forgot, the thing they didn't finish, the thing they apparently "let go."

We see the outcome. We don't always see the effort.

And there will always be people standing on the other side of the fence with their imaginary clipboards, ready to decide what the green pool says about you.

I'm learning I don't have to join them.

Neither do you.

That's why I made this sticker.

To everyone out there doing your best and wondering if somehow it still wasn't enough — I see you. I see you showing up. I see you caring. I see you trying. I see you putting yourself out there, hoping for things, and occasionally getting your heart broken a little when they don't work out.

Your best work won't always get you the outcome you wanted. That doesn't make it less than your best. And it doesn't make you less, either.

So let the people with their imaginary clipboards stand on the other side of the fence.

You've got a pool to shock.

Green pools happen to good people.