It stared at me as soon as I walked in the office on Tuesday.

As I got closer to my desk, the purple circle punched me in my gut.

When I sat down and took a deeper look, I felt sick to my stomach.

After a conversation that afternoon about mistakes in display type (or headlines to those not in journalism) in general, I not only busted one, but also got the person’s name wrong in the mug. If there was any saving grace — to be honest, there isn’t any — it was on an inside page. Still, to have that happen the day of a discussion sucked.

I let it affect me much longer than I choose to admit and went on autopilot not too long after. I went right to work on paginating Op-Ed, and halfway through I found out that wasn’t my duty for the day. I only had to do sports. Oh well, I still finished it.

For some reason, while wallowing in my mistake-borne malaise, a scene from the newest Rocky move (“Rocky Balboa”) played in my mind. Yeah, I don’t know either.

All right, if we’re being completely honest here, that scene didn’t play in my mind. It just seemed so right to put in here. And when it comes down to it, that’s what I did.

I shook whatever funk I had and wanted to make sure today’s sports section sang. I put my all behind every section I design, but this one had extra motivation behind it.

Our centerpiece was a lengthy feature on the evolution of tight ends by a Georgia Grady School student. From what I understand, they write a tome as part of their curriculum and get extra credit if it runs in the newspaper. We had several others grace our section and each time I made sure it looked good for them to have a clip.

And remember what I said about good art making a centerpiece? Today’s picture, taken by AJ Reynolds, recently won top honors from the Georgia Press Association. You’ll see why. It would be a true travesty if it didn’t win, because the lighting hits it perfectly and the action inside the frame — as well as the reactions — are golden.

So there you have it. Today was quite the adventure, but with every mistake you make in life, you can either let it eat you alive or learn from it and move on.

I’ll try to do better next time. It’s all about growth, right?