Proactive

About ten years ago, my son used the word proactive when describing the police department he was applying to in Massachusetts. I never used that word before then, but I use it a lot now. I am a proactive person. I think of step C when I am doing step A. Step B is not far enough down the line for me. I like to be one step ahead of the game. I have a friend who barely thinks of step A. This week, his way of doing things backfired on him. He planned a trip to Hershey Park with his grandson. He made reservations for three nights. A day later he decided two nights were enough. I said to cancel the Thursday night stay on Sunday. He argued that it was fine to do it when he arrived Monday. He got on the road and never really mapped the trip out. Half way there I got the frantic call that he was lost. I got online and directed him in the right direction. When he got to the hotel at 9pm, he told them that he was not staying the third night. They said he had to have cancelled before 6pm that day and there would be the charge for the cancelled night. He went to Hershey Park on Tuesday and while riding the roller coaster, he lost his car keys. I said to take a second set of keys with him since he was traveling far, but he said I was paranoid. I have no idea how he got his car out of the parking lot last night. That was his problem for not listening.