The process of trying something new is a strange thing. It is a step into the unknown that can be filled with excitement and trepidation. Trying something new involves getting used to a new normal or getting the hang of a new skill. You open yourself to the heights of success and the depths of failure’s despair.

When it is an experience, you have the memories, and when it is a new product what do you have left other than an item you don’t want anymore and less money in your bank account.

That’s what I am muddling through on this bright August morning – how to make sense of my experience this weekend. I bought a new product, several new products that were supposed to improve a monthly experience and they were less than underwhelming.

There was the initial excitement of shopping for the item. The hours of product reviews and research to find the right option. The excitement and hope as I opened the package that this would be as life-changing as they promised. The first try of success, the ease with which this new thing was being used. It was groundbreaking until it wasn’t.

The next day there was a failure, upon failure. This wonder item was no longer a wonder but a black spot on my palm. It drug me to the depths of disappointment and dashed my hopes upon the rocks. Waves of emotion, including a few curses washed over the day.

A day later, with a good night’s sleep and hopefully a clearer head, I try again. Instructions steeped in my mind I set out to make this blasted thing work like the product reviews. I want to be as happy as them. I give it another go, and immediately it is difficult.

But the instructions say there is a learning curve, you have to keep practicing! Let us help you with our customer service tips! Except you actually feel bombarded with more information than you know what to do with. So I keep going.

They give back, I’m doing a good thing, right? Right! You tell yourself. It’s better for the environment, but it’s damaging my calm. Keep going, you tell yourself.

It keeps getting worse, yet I keep going learning into that learning curve, with outstretched arms I want to learn this skill. Be a part of the new normal, until the failure literally slaps me and you better believe it hurts.

The wonderful promise in tatters and the guaranteed experience of better is making you see red. What was the purpose of it all? It was the start of something new.