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Ever hear somebody say, "Good work is its own reward?" It sounds cheesy, and maybe like an excuse not to honor someone as they deserve, but sometimes it's true. Sometimes it's the only reward you'll get.

Recently, here on Gaia, I had to re-learn this. I took on a big project for a few people, many of whom did go out of their way to say thanks and show honor. Not all of them, though, and inevitably it was the greedy, pushy ones who stuck around. It was never enough that I stayed on the ball, stuck my neck out, pestered the living daylights out of people who had answers, and spent a lot of time on trying to make some of them happy some of the time. It got to the point where logging on was something I was afraid of and stress came into my everyday life-- not easy to do, I'm pretty good at separating online and offline. I know it had a negative impact on my other work here. A few days ago, we reached a resolution and I delivered it, burnt-out and not entirely happy, and now I'm the bad guy who "switched sides" or never really meant it in the first place. All that work down the toilet because of an aggressive, insensitive, selfish minority.

And you know what? I'm okay with that.

Not everyone walked away happy, but they got what they needed. The work I put into this problem was concerted, good, and all I could have done. Screw what anyone else says or does, I know I saw it through and did more than I had to. I'm thankful to the people who were mature and I don't care about those who weren't, even as they're running around saying I suck. Something to think about the next time life gets you down or people take things for granted. If you did your best, that's all you could have done, and that's okay. Hell, that's great! 110% is way more than you'd need. You did good, and there's no reason to let someone else take that away from you.