A Blessing in the Skies

In the winter of 2004, I booked a trip to Florida to visit my dad and spend some time on the beach with two dear friends.  I bought all three plane tickets online, printed the boarding passes, and we took off out of Logan Airport during our February vacation.  I couldn't believe at how cheap the tickets were - I thought we scored a pretty sweet deal. 

All three of us were public middle school teachers at the time. 

We had a lot of fun in Florida, and thankfully, we managed to stay out of trouble.  We stayed in sleepy St. Pete Beach with my dad and had a great time.  Very relaxing.  Teaching pubescent, adolescents can really take a toll on you, so this trip was well deserved for the the three of us.   

When the week came to an end, we packed up our stuff and headed towards the airport.  My dad gave us a lift up to Tampa.  When we got the check in gate, I gave my license and name to the flight attendant at the kiosk.  He kept checking his database for our names.  They weren't coming up.  (a bead of sweat appeared) 

Then, he found our itinerary.  We were expecting to fly out on February 24th.  Our itinerary made it clear that I'd mistakenly booked our return flight for March 24th.  Our return flight was scheduled in the wrong month!  (angry twitch)

The blood dropped from our heads.  We quickly went into emergency mode, spreading out across the airport, trying to find flights back to Boston for that day.  We had to be back to work the next day.  All three of us worked at the same school (and we were already taking an extra day off).  It wouldn't look good for us back in Fairhaven.  

Everything was booked.  Solid.

Finally, I had a brilliant idea.  We could try to fly into New Hampshire!  Sure, someone would have to drive 3 hours to come get us, but we could figure that out.  I knew that Southwest flew to New Hampshire, but what city?   I told the guy at the desk, can you get us to Manchester... or Nashua?

He was typing furiously on his keyboard.  "Well... yes.... there's a flight leaving... but you'll have to run for it..."  Boom.  We got our tickets, gave them our luggage and b-lined for the security gate.  We got through.  But on our way to the gate, I realized something detrimental:

Our tickets weren't for Nashua, New Hampshire.  They were for Nashville, Tennessee!

The flight attendant at that gate saw our distress.  "Ok, don't get on this plane.  You don't want to go to Nashville... but your bags are going without you..."

That may have been the most stressful airport emergency-movie-like scramble-situation that I've ever been in.  I'm sure I popped a few blood vessels that day.  I felt like I'd let my friends down.  They were worried about our jobs and how we were going to explain it all.  I felt like it was all my fault - and that I was the one who was responsible. 

I called my dad and he came back to get us.  We eventually got tickets - to leave the next day. 

So, we had one more day on the beach - without luggage.  So we sat on the beach in our underwear, which was quite hilarious.  It helped us laugh a little about the situation. 

We went back to teaching.  

In June, the day before the last day of the school year, my friend and I got pink slips in our mailboxes.  The school was going to lay us off.  I was pretty upset.  

This seemed to be the worst thing that could happen.  I didn't love the job, but it was my first "real job", and it was my first full-time gig after college.  I took it pretty hard.  I judged myself and told myself that I could have done better.  I'd gotten used the mediocre money, the security, the lifestyle.  

And it took me years to see that that was really a blessing in disguise.  Booking the wrong flight may have been the catalyst towards a better life for myself.  It tested my ability to resolve a stressful situation.  It gave me an opportunity to apologize to my friends.   It contributed to me getting fired.  

It took a while to see that getting fired was a blessing in disguise.  

That job was a trap for me (and for my friend).  We got out of that trap the hard way.  But it led to such bigger things - better greatness.  

I ended up going to graduate school that fall and moving away from the public school scene.  

Doors opened, and my life got much better.  

But it wouldn't have happened without that flight being missed.  That catastrophe saved my life.

  

Alchemy 

spinning towards some   

sort of epiphany 

      I pause

    and hear the big bells

                          ringing

the wave of the sound

calms everything down

and the riff raff 

    of my mind

  scatters

        like butterflies

                 blinking

see, the energy that goes

  into hardening the stones

      is the same

  that softens

             everything into gold

I decide

    on all the things I buy

  and all the things I am sold

the mind is a window

  looking out over the cold

this season 

     I am striving

   to break out of the mold

because the the energy that goes

    into the hardening the stones

       is the same

            that softens

               everything

                  into gold