Always know your competition and deal with them appropriately.
I like to collect
agates; it started when I was a little girl. There was a man down the road that
would pay me 50 cents per pound. He used them to make jewelry. This started my agate hunting adventure.
I have a large non-agate rock in my possession also (it’s on
my mantel above the fireplace). It is just a normal gray rock about the size of
a shoe. I have the words “my rock” painted on it with red finger nail polish.
Why do I have this rock? I have no clue. Other then I was in the army at the time,
in a place that I had never been before. Therefore, I took a piece of it, decided
to carry it with me for the rest of my life.
Anyways, I was baffled until one-day. I meet the neighbor’s
adult son with his two boys 5 and 7 years of age out at the end of the
driveway. I bent down to look at a potential agate. “Oh you collect agates to”
he said.” We have been finding all kinds of great agate on this road.” “We even
found one the size of a baseball on the corner of 110th and Manning.
It was great…bzzzzt….I could no longer hear a word he was saying. My mind was
too busy screaming obscenities to him.
There was a dagger in
my heart. ” Really, I said feigning a smile. “Who gave you the right to hunt
agates in my territory?” my mind continued to scream!
“Yah, it’s so much fun collecting rocks and we even got a
rock tumbler,” the oldest boy yelled out.
“Really” I said. “I looked down at them and saw the glow in
their little eyes, and their sweet little smiles. “Wow, that’s great, I am really happy for
you.” At that point, I realized I had more than enough agates in my possession.
I stepped down that day. I gave them the
position of the official agate hunters of the territory.
After all, what am I going to do with all those rocks? When I am dead and gone, my people will have
no idea what to do with my rocks
So Always check the competition and make sure you deal with
them appropriately.
