Skip to main content

Saved by Destiny, Coffee, and Poetry

So there I was. All dressed up and in my car, following the voice of my GPS, making turn after turn. I had made a wrong turn sometime earlier, making my GPS go into overdrive trying to steer me back the right way. She insisted I go back to the main road (I programmed my GPS to have a female voice; no way would my pride be able to take another man’s voice telling me what to do.) Turn right, turn left, left again, she said. But, of course, to no avail. Finally, I accepted the undeniable truth; I would not get to my destination tonight.

My destination was a restaurant in a very business-y section of downtown Fort Worth. A local group was meeting there tonight for after-hours drinks and networking. I hadn't been to these meetings in almost a year. Not quite sure how I felt about going back. But the voices of all the no-nonsense career experts kept talking in my head, “It’s not what you know, but who you know.” As usual, I listened and did as I was told.

But I have to admit, there was another reason I was planning on going tonight; and the only voice telling me to go was my own. The reason—you guessed it—was a guy. I knew he would be there. I also knew it wouldn’t make a difference to him if I was there or not. But I thought if I could get some more face time with him, I could make him less indifferent. Terrible plan, I know.

Fortunately, Destiny didn’t want me to make a fool of myself and Courage couldn't stand that I wasn't making my own decisions. Together they kept me away from that restaurant. It was then that I realized not too far was an awesome little coffee shop known as Buon Giorno. I had been there before but always accompanied by someone and only for the purpose of grabbing a quick pick-me-up. Not today, I thought, this time I’m going to enjoy some great-tasting coffee and a little peace.

So I parked my car and headed straight for the entrance, all while feeling self-conscience about being way too overdressed. As soon as I stepped in though, I saw the baristas’ smiling faces and smelled the sweet aroma of delicious coffee, and I knew I made the right choice.

I ordered a coffee and cranberry almond cake (so good, you should try it) then went to sit down in the comfy couch section. A very cool feature about this coffee shop is that they have plenty of books lying around. I asked one of the baristas about it and he told me that people are welcome to grab a book and leave a book. Like the Little Free Library that started in Wisconsin.

So as I was sitting there, still a little upset at not having made it to my destination, I happened to flip to one of the pages of a cute little book I saw underneath a stack of other books. Maybe it was the size or color of this book that drew me to it…or maybe it was my super cool friend Destiny having my back again. Whatever it was, I picked up the book, flipped to a random page, and found this cool poem.

From the book Words to Help You Be A Success, page 7.
See the title? Thank ya Destiny J

Moral of the story? Trust yourself and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Sometimes it’s those mistakes that lead us to where we are supposed to be. We may not accomplish every little thing we set out to do (like finding a restaurant) but with enough trust, and with the help of Destiny, we will find new opportunities in the most surprising areas.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stop Using Candy to Motivate Students

Looks like it is my unpopular belief that candy is one of the worst motivators in teaching. Let’s just think about this for a bit. Candy, literally pure SUGAR, is a common method teachers use to motivate students to work. Forget the fact that candy is a direct way to harm a child’s health; candy is no different than any other type of currency for children. You are paying them to be students. Teachers using the candy-motivation strategy are failing their students. They are sending the wrong message. If your goal is to help students motivate themselves, it won’t be accomplished by throwing candy their way. It is such a short-term effect that using it in the classroom won’t make any difference in student motivation. If, in fact, student motivation is your goal, then you need to create an atmosphere of positive learning. If you want students to care, if you want students to motivate themselves, the motivators you offer them as a teacher should not be extrinsic, but rather intrinsi...
1 comment
Read more

Teacher and Students Learn Together

This text was originally written in May 2016 for Teach For America purposes. Now that my TFA commitment is coming to a close, I have decided to publish my Articulation of Leadership and share with my fellow teachers in hopes that it might express the importance of our work and inspire teachers to continue teaching. ... The academic school year 2015 through 2016 was a year of many changes. I started my new career as an educator; before I had been an editor. This was a big jump for me. I went from reading and editing books every day to teaching children how to read. The decision to change careers was not an easy one, but I knew without a shadow of doubt that I wanted to teach. More specifically, I wanted to teach literacy. Truth is: I love reading and writing. I love it so much that I want to share it with the rest of the world. And there is no better place to begin than in the classroom. My students sharing and celebrating a book we published   titled The Day the Students Too...
Post a Comment
Read more

An Interview With a Scribbler-Scrabbler

The young girl, bright-eyed, fresh-faced but also a little mischievous, loved writing in places she wasn’t suppose to write. The oh-so-popular ‘Blank was here’ on old picnic tables, dirty bathroom stalls, and rusty locker doors always made her chuckle. “Somebody was here before me,” she’d think, and for some unknown reason, that made her smile. “People should be allowed to leave their mark. That’s their God-given right.” The young girl, Catalina, was her name, ventured through life with these daring thoughts in mind. It was exactly this type of thinking that led her small hand to mark odd, little spaces in her very own bedroom. Scribbling, jotting, doodling, her inky pens scratched away. To the untrained eye, one might think the room is free of scribbles and scrabbles. The cleanliness of the white walls might fool them. But you ask Catalina to point them out to you and she’ll show you where you need to look. “Forget what you can see and think of what you can’t see. If...
Post a Comment
Read more