It was lunchtime during the Chamber of Commerce Mentor & Learn event--an annual presentation where business leaders give teens in the school district an idea of what the business world is like. I was sitting with one of the presenters and my fellow event-planners. One of the women told the presenter that she had attended the same school in Canada mentioned in her presentation. As we asked about her educational path that took her to Canada, she said she had first attended Mt. Holyoke, as she had grown up in Massachusetts. Well I grew up in Massachusetts, so I had to asked, "what town?" Yep, same as I: Fitchburg! As we compared notes, I learned that she was there after me, and had attended Applewild, a private school. I had an immediate flash of memory, long buried, of visiting Applewild in an attempt to obtain one of their scholarships. I recalled being in a room at a table by myself, and being given a photograph of a girl in a field and asked to write a short story about it. (I must have been about 12 at the time.) Evidently they weren't sufficiently impressed, as I didn't get the scholarship, but attended the public Memorial Junior High School instead. I remembered a feeling of wounded pride and rejection at the time, but now I see that it was meant to be. Memorial was where I became best friends with Holly, from the only Mormon family in the town, who introduced me to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And, as they say, "The rest is history."
Do you ever look back and see the course your life has taken, the twists and turns, the decisions and diversions, and wonder at the divine plan that must be involved?
