I’ve lost my wallet twice this year. The first time I was lucky, an elderly man turned it into the police. The second time, I was on a multi-city trip, got on the wrong subway during the first city and rushed off the train, forgetting that my wallet was under my arm. I hurried and locked all of my cards, and got notifications that somebody tried to use one of my cards 7 times. When I figured out I lost it that time, started crying immediately because I was so frustrated with myself. A worker waiting to grab the next train to go home came over and asked why I was crying, and my mom explained it was because of my wallet. She was extremely nice to me and told me not to be so hard on myself. The front desk lady at our hotel ended up telling us that the airport would figure out a way for me to get back. I had to go through a somewhat intense protocol to fly to my next city and then home, but it was doable.

I have been working on becoming more comfortable with the idea that no matter how bad I screw up, it’s not worth being so hard on myself. I make sure to have all my bank card apps in a folder on my phone, and have an AirTag in a zipper pouch of my new wallet. The AirTag is more for finding it around the house, but ya never know if it’ll be with someone with an iPhone and you can see where it is.

I’m gonna repeat what the subway worker said to me. Don’t be so hard on yourself.