This week we had an interesting experience. After house-sitting for a month, we moved back into the Five-Star Hotel (which has conveniently earned itself a boost from one to two stars...). The hotel sits on Main Street in Highland Falls, where there are a bunch of small restaurants and an ice cream shop.
One evening we decided to walk out to the ice cream shop for a treat. Of course, it took a bit to get shoes on the kids and get out the door. When we left the hotel, we realized Hayden didn't put his shoes on. We debated going back in and getting them on, but I was admittedly irritated and decided we'd just go ahead and he'd be without shoes. Just after we turned onto Main Street, a car pulled over and the cadet driving yelled "Go BYU" at us (I was wearing my BYU polo), and then asked if I was "Brother Ellett". This was a bit odd, I thought.
We came to find that he was leaving within the week to go on his mission, but that he had a friend who was a Russian major and had been emailing a new instructor who was a BYU graduate (me, of course). He explained that his friend was investigating the church, and asked that I keep his friend in mind while we were here. We of course said we would, and now I know something about one of our students that I might otherwise never have known.
Afterwards, Mandy and I were pondering about this experience, and how much timing was involved. Had we not decided to get ice cream, or had we decided to go back and get Hayden's shoes on, we wouldn't have been on Main Street in time for this cadet to drive by and see us. As he left on his mission the next day, we could not have met him later at church. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
How many opportunities and experiences have we lost out on or missed simply because of a few seconds, or forgotten shoes, or a wrong turn? Conversely, how many opportunities and experiences have we had because of those few seconds, or because of the wrong turn?
Life is a very interesting thing.
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