Day 10 - Gratitude Challenge 2021

Today, I'm simply giving thanks to those circumstances that may sometimes annoy us but are beyond our control. In the middle of these things happening, we sometimes fail to realize that things can also happen for our protection. Things can happen to cause us to slow down, change direction or just sit still because it's what we need in our life at the moment. As an avid explorer, I can tell you that nothing used to annoy me more than having a flight delayed or canceled, usually because I was in a rush to start my vacation. I quickly realized, standing at the gate after missing a flight one day, that it didn't always have to be a "bad" thing at all.

I arrived at the gate as the door to the jetway closed. Talk about annoyed and I also had the nerve to feel like I was entitled to have the gate agent let me onto the flight. I wasn't rude, but I did have a "jerk" like frame of mind at that moment. Anyway, I proceeded to plead with the gate agent to help me secure another flight. She was the nicest lady. She helped me with no problem. The next flight was in two hours and It would be at the next gate over from where we were. The lady and I got to talking - we were the only two people at the gate - and she mentioned to me that her daughter would be graduating from college soon and was in need of an internship. She told me that her daughter was a great student and she was studying international relations.

I smiled as I listened. While I no longer worked in the field, I still kept u with contacts from my former employer, which happened to be one of the greatest foreign policy think tanks in Washington, DC. Without thinking, I said if you send me your daughter's CV, then I'll connect her with a former colleague, which may lead to an internship. Like any proud parent wanting to help, she already had her daughter's CV and sent it to me while we were at the gate. I reviewed the resume and thought, what a bright young lady. I sent it along with an email to the secretary of my former colleague and asked if there was any time available to meet with a student planning to enter into the world of international relations.

The agent's daughter had a meeting before boarding began for my new flight. When she realized the meeting was with a Congressman, she was ecstatic. She called her daughter immediately and told her, be available for the meeting. I could hear the excitement of her daughter on the other end of the line. They both thanked me profusely. I'd forgotten all about missing my flight as I was happy just to be able to help. That afternoon, the gate agent was so happy, that she upgraded the rest of my trip - current flight and return - to first class. It turned out, she was a supervisor and the authority to do such a thing. A month later, I received the nicest thank you letter from the woman and her daughter. The meeting was great and the daughter had been offered an internship at the same think tank where I used to work.

This young lady was very bright. Though, I'd like to think had I not missed my flight that she may not have received an offer for which she was truly excited. It all worked out and God put me and that gate agent in each other's path for the best of reasons, to simply help one another! What's better than that?