What motivates a call?

Perhaps just a short post.
I've been pondering this since last night. I played a 2-table tourney on Bodog last night, 18 players...for a whopping $4.00 + .40. 8 places paid, but 8th, only paid out $4.01 total...go figure! You can guess where I finished, if I told you the adventure only cost me .39... : ) Okay on to the pondering part. We're down to the final 8. I'm last to act in the hand, blinds $50/$100. Guy to my right, is the only caller (aside from the blinds) when it comes to me. I look down at pockets 8's, and push all in, for just over $1,800. I have time and time again reinforced my tight table image thus far in the tournament. I haven't entered a pot that I didn't raise and raise hard. And it has been very seldom that I've been in a pot at all. I'm talkin' uber-tight here people. The blinds fold. Then the guy to my right...goes in the tank...and finally calls. He flips over Q-9os. Now I might understand if he was an enormous stack, but he wasn't. He was in the $3,200 range. There were a couple of guys at the table with over $5,000. Why do you make this call? Am I missing something here, that I need to reconsider? Maybe I've been doing it wrong all along. I'm not upset about it...just curious. Besides a 39 cent loss, is a lot easier to swallow than some of my recent losses. I changed courses rather quickly on you folks, but I decided that I was playing to defend my money, worried about the loss. It was affecting my mood. A little depressing after a while. And I'm questioning my own abilities. I'm sorting through my play, the play of others, and the luck of the draw and trying to size myself up. In the meantime...rather than worry that I was giving away the last few hundred of the bankroll, I opted to clean my self out, and hit the cashout button. I left some small sums out there, to monkey around with. Actually take somewhat of a break from the levels I was playing at. Get back to the sheer enjoyment of poker, and maybe let the winning take care of itself. I'm going to stay at micro limits for a while, and not have high expectations for myself. I just want to play the game. Now, if I'm able to hoist up these paltry sums again, to say the $100 milestone, well then I'll start re-evaluate, and possibly consolidate the roll again into a room and play for a while. I'm also giving thought to involving myself in some "slightly" higher live games. We'll see.

All for now.

Regards,

cheer_dad