Stop Only When You're Finished

Christmas is supposed to be a happy time of year.


Earlier this evening, my dog Bella (no, my family didn't name her, and no, her name was not a result of the Twilight series) was nowhere to be found. Apparently, she was let outside to do her business, and no more than 5 minutes later, she was gone. My family immediately went into panic mode. Keep in mind, we were all borderline asleep from eating a huge dinner, and the last thing we wanted to do was move around - let alone look around for our lost dog. Talk about a nightmare. But still, we of course went out to look for her.


So my brother started searching the backyard and in the woods, my dad walked up and down the street to see if she was close by, and I drove around to see if maybe she got a little further from the house. After a few minutes, I picked up my dad after a little while so we could drive around together. I said to him "Don't worry dad, we'll find her."


For all I knew, Bella could have been running full speed away from our house for the entire time that we were searching. But I was 100% right when I said we would find her. Not because I was confident that she would be near our house, but because there was no way we were going to stop looking until we found her. None of us cared that we were tired, we just wanted our dog. We weren't going to be done looking until our dog was back home. Anyone else would feel the same way. She's a part of our family. Every law of Christmas says that family needs to be together.


Our dog being lost was a pretty extreme case of the point I want to make today. It is a pretty simple moral: Don't call it quits before it's time to actually call it quits. Nothing is ever done until you are happy with what you have in the end. Ever look at an unfinished painting before? It might still look okay, but don't you just want to see it when it is actually done? I feel that way. I feel similarly about movies. I hear people talking about movies that they walk out of half way through because they didn't like it. Well, they just solidified their opinion, because now they didn't even see the whole thing. Maybe their minds would change if they watched all of it. The ending could be worth the 10 bucks to see the movie. If they just finished it, at least they would be able to pass a proper judgment on it.


You don't hand in papers before you write the conclusion. You don't give someone a gift before you finish making it. You don't leave halfway through a meeting. You don't build a house without a roof. You don't cook food and not feed anyone. And you certainly don't stop looking for your dog before you find it.


I proofread what I just wrote, and made sure I liked it all. Everything's proper, and I think the post says what it needs to. I say that its finished.. It's safe to stop and post it now.