If you can joke about it

I was sitting with my work partner when another one of our colleagues, Martin, came up. Kande and I had been talking about the field trip we were planning for the school, and how much each student and teacher was expected to pay to participate.

“You’ll pay for me won’t you?” Martin asked.

I paused before responding, thinking about the recent situation I had dealt with at my house: discovering that money for my community health project had disappeared. Martin and Kande were two of the five people who had helped me try to recover it initially.

“I have no money left,” I responded. “All my money has disappeared.”

He and Kande burst out laughing. I chalked it up as the next step in moving on.