Rise or Fall? You Decide on the Occasion

Do you grab life or let life grab you?

It was an early morning that paid no attention to her plans. She got her son ready, straightened the house, made lunches and even packed a little time in to catch up with her friend. She rushes to get ready for the interview she's been waiting for. The sun is still shinning.

Her car wont run, so she had to arrange a ride. Her ride runs late with no reason and the situation is suddenly pouring out of her control. Shes frantic and as she pauses to wipe the tears from her eyes, she fixes her mascara, inhales deeply and decides to continue to her interview. She is now 15 minutes late. The clouds circle in.

This is the opportunity that she feels pin points the open path of a successful career. It is the position she has been looking for, in the field she has been ready for, at a time when she is ready for it and yet it's now 20 minutes passed 1:00 and she still has yet to arrive. She can feel the heat, but can no longer see the sun.

She calls to inform her interviewer she is running late and needs clearer directions. She is in the vicinity but cannot find the building. Trying to calm down, she takes a moment to breathe before finally finding the location and gathering her items to go in. She is now 30 minutes late to her interview. She gets out of the car and as she steps down, if nothing else could go wrong, the heel of her shoe snaps right off. Contemplating whether or not to go in, she pulls nerve from deep down in places only a few of us have reached and walks to the door going from 5'7" to 5'3" with each step. As she walks in to the Department of Community and Behavioral Health, she decides to just take off her shoes. The sky seems officially dark.

It's now 35 minutes passed the hour and she shows up with her hair frazzled, her shoes in hand with one heel missing and yet with a smile on her face, tells the lady, "I normally wear shoes to an interview." Through her chuckle and sincere apologies she kindly and briefly explains what happened. As the interviewer looked at her completely appalled she said, "I don't know if I would have come. That is a rough morning." And with her continuous smile, she responded, "well, life throws many things at us and we must learn how to go with the flow of things. Every day won't always be a good day, but you have to make the best out of everything. Nothing will always work perfectly."

Can you picture the interviewer's reaction and she then turned and said, "I wish I could look at life from that perspective." The sun suddenly began shinning again.

In my opinion, if you knew her, as I do, you would say just as I did, "Friend, you always rise to the occasion, no matter what it is!"

For most of us, we would have chopped it up to "not supposed to be" when our ride didn't show. For some of us, we would have held out until we couldn't find the location and a very small percentage of us would have gone all the way despite the messed up hair, height changes and 35 minutes passed the start time with no greater story than the truth and a smile.

In the midst of it, do you continue to poke yourself with the drug of determination? Do you still feign for success when the ride to it gets rocky?

She did.

Rise or Fall? You Decide on the Occasion.