When You’re In A Tough Spot, You Find One

When I was in my twenties I decided to go back to school. After making a mess of my life and dropping out of high school then bouncing around jobs, I decided to see how it would go if I took some more automotive classes.I suspected it might be something I could turn into a career, though of course the idea of being a student again was intimidating and a little terrifying, and I also had some concerns about fitting in as a woman in a male-dominated industry. On the first night of class I got to campus over a half hour early to make sure I could find parking and, of course, it didn’t help. I circled and circled, getting increasingly stressed and desperate.

Class started at six pm and it was 5:56 pm and I still didn’t have a spot. I was literally crying in my car telling myself that this was a sign from the universe that going back to school was the wrong choice. I decided if I didn’t find parking in the next two minutes I would leave, drive home, drop my classes, and just fake my way through whatever else happened and wherever life took me and that would be the end of going back to school.

Just as I made this mental deal with myself, a car pulled out of a spot directly in front of me. I parked, wiped my face, gathered my supplies, and went inside to class. My butt was in the seat about ten seconds before six pm.

I’ll never know who it was, but I often think of the guy who pulled out of the parking spot right in front of me and wish I could tell him: thank you. THANK YOU. That class went well, and so did the next ones, and the ones after, and the job I got next, and the one after, and this year I was hired and started to teach part-time in the very same program I attended.

If that guy hadn’t left his parking spot when he did, this would not have happened. There’s no way for him to ever find out, but he gave me a life I never would’ve imagined when I was crying in my car that night.