March 29, 2026

I lack self-confidence in many arenas. Put me at a party where I don’t know anyone, and I do my best to look invisible. I’ve had a few jobs where I had to act the part of a salesperson, and I have found that I rarely have the hutzpah one needs to repeatedly ask for the sale. If I’m in a situation where the loudest person is the one who gets the attention, I’ll just get in line and wait my turn.

But in general, when it comes to fulfilling the responsibilities of my job, acting in my role as a superintendent or a principal, I’m pretty confident that I can say and do the right thing. Amongst friends, I have been known to confidently and frequently give facts about a situation, relate a very interesting quote from a book or a movie, and give opinions on trivial or important matters.

I’m thinking of the movie Broadcast News, released back in 1987, when the president of the network says to Holly Hunter’s character Jane, “It must be nice to feel like you’re the smartest person in the room — to feel like you’re always right and everyone else is always wrong.” To which she replies with great candor, “No. It’s awful.”

I get that.

But sometimes, and this may shock many of you, rarely, against all odds, I may be wrong.

Earlier this week, my friend Merlin and I were returning from Hawaii. We were flying Alaska Airlines, a company which acquired Hawaiian Airlines about a year and a half ago. I keep up with these things. You never know when you will need that information. I dropped off my golf clubs at the ticket counter in the Kona airport, and rejoined my friend. As we started our walk towards security, Merlin said, “You know that you dropped off your bag at Hawaiian Airlines, and we’re flying Alaska. Are you sure that will be OK?”

While I did not know that I had done that, I proceeded to explain to Merlin the litany of reasons  why it would be just fine. I talked about the fact that Alaska had recently acquired Hawaiian, and that surely the two systems talked to each other. I talked about my knowledge of security processes, and how they would never have accepted and tagged the bag if the two systems weren’t merged and that my name checked out with the people flying that day. And I brushed aside Merlin’s comment like a bothersome moth that it was, brimming with confidence and proud of myself for knowing how things work. I might as well have begun my explanation to Merlin by quoting Prince Humperdink from The Princess Bride, “Unless I am wrong, and I’m never wrong . . .”

Fast forward five hours or so, when we are waiting for my golf bag to get delivered to the oversize luggage area in LAX. It’s a bad feeling when the baggage carousel stops and the oversized luggage door slides shut, and you’ve got nothing. I wondered what they had done wrong, and proceeded to the Alaska Airlines baggage office.

Two very nice employees looked up my boarding pass, and quickly saw that no luggage was checked in under my name. Yet another mistake on their part! What is going on?! They asked if I had my luggage receipt, and, after a little more time than I want to admit, I found it, and gave the incriminating evidence to them. Let’s see what they do with THAT!

The first thing they kindly said was that the claim ticket was from Hawaiian Airlines, not Alaska. “But you guys are part of the same company,” I said, reminding them of what they surely already knew. “Yes,” they replied politely, “But we have different systems that don’t talk with each other.”

Uh oh.

I looked at the claim ticket for the first time. 

Another uh oh.

“Peter Mathews” was the name on the ticket. Also, the flight did not go to LAX – it went to Honolulu instead.

My first thought was that I was never going to hear the end of it from Merlin. And my second thought was, how in the world was I going to get my golf clubs back? Alaska Airlines had done absolutely nothing wrong. They were trying to find a piece of luggage that they never put their hands on and that no one knew was attached to me. 

But over the next 24 hours, they worked with a great Hawaiian Airlines employee named Keola, located the bag in Honolulu, had someone walk it over to the Alaska Airlines people, put it on a plane, and delivered it to my house. That is a spectacular level of service. 

A lot of incredible people worked to overcome my first mistake, and worse, my overconfident response to my friend.

And now both Jill and Merlin have dirt on me that they can use for a long time.

As my friend Steve the professor says, “Karma has a way of biting you in the ass.” Next time my highly confident correctness is questioned, even though I probably am right, I’ll pause and just consider the possibility that I could be wrong. Because Holly Hunter was right. It is awful being right so often. But it’s a little more awful when you don’t consider the fact that you could be dead wrong.

Post #144 on www.drmdmatthews.com

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NOTES

Yeah, I know. It’s been too long since I’ve posted. Not long enough for some of you. Thanks to many of you for your encouragement. Retirement is interesting (well, semi-retirement actually), as you have so much more time than you had before, and yet it’s not enough. I’m working on it.

When Jill was reviewing my draft, she read the first line, the, “I lack self-confidence in many arenas” line, and rolled her eyes. Thanks, honey.

Hawaii was awesome. We were there at the tail end of the storms that battered the islands. Rain was forecast every day, but we were able to be outdoors all day long. I love it down there. There was very little downtime – golf, pickleball, swimming, cooking, eating, and even some yoga classes. I returned happy and exhausted – my perfect vacation.

And to Peter Mathews, the man whose ticket my golf clubs used to visit Honolulu, I’m sorry if this caused you any inconvenience. I hope you didn’t have to pay for my clubs’ extra travel experiences.

I actually hit a good shot here, but the winds from the ocean pushed it way over to the left side of the green. Sometimes the experience matters more than the score. Sometimes.

Enjoying Hawaii with my friends Pete, Brooks, and Merlin, all of whom have been mentioned once or twice in my blogs. Pete doesn’t really read blog posts (but I’m pretty confident that he reads something, sometimes), and Merlin and Brooks are regular readers.

Cover photo from ChatGPT.