Life has a funny way of turning small moments into major turning points. What’s one seemingly ordinary moment that ended up changing everything for you?
#1
The time I broke my own rule about answering my phone. I had caller ID, and the rule was if I didn’t know the person who was calling, I let it roll to voicemail. My phone was set to ring four times before rolling over, and for no reason I can figure I picked up the call right on the fourth ring.
Background: I’d spent the day at a copy place because I didn’t have a computer, and I was looking for a job. I’d placed a personals ad a month before and hadn’t checked for responses until that day. There had been one response that was now a month old, and I was intrigued by what the sender wrote, so I replied with “Sorry it took so bloody long to get back to you. . .”
And he called me back. We celebrated our 25th anniversary in June.
So, answering a phone call from a stranger led to me meeting my husband.
#2
First day of high school, I threw the basketball back to the guys on the court. It bounced off the head of some short chick in front of me. 30 years later we’re still best friends (she claims to have no memory of this–obviously I gave her amnesia).
#3
Trying to distill it to one moment is short sighted. For me: getting into a Ph.D. program, getting fired and working as a bookkeeper where I could have taken off with $150K, the ten times I’ve moved across the country and met a lot of new people. Getting married and divorced, representing myself in the process. Five months and five days in the Henrico Hilton and having to completely start over.
So yes, each of those were part of my changes in life. There were not insignificant. Meeting my good friend Keith by happenstance was insignificant at the moment, but he has been a great friend.
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