In life I believe we get the opportunity to raise the people around us up. It doesn’t take much: a kind word, good advice or monetary support with specific commitments. I’ve been blessed to help and be helped in this way and it’s truly a wonderful thing when it works. It doesn’t always, some people are too in the moment or not ready to action this type of support. You can’t let this get you down or stop this process. Sometimes, it takes years…. In fact, a long while back I gave a laptop and cash to a single mom of four, she said she wanted to go to school and get a degree. She worked her ass off and was continually and permanently in a state of motion. She was alway pleasant to all of her customers and she was always polite, no matter how crappy of a day she was having. She was a doer and I placed a bet on this young woman. I did make her sign a small commitment letter, she signed it and took my help. I never heard anything about it again and she moved on to a better job as a manager at a new coffee shop, she busted ass and kept working, taking care of her kids and making a living, but no further towards a degree. I kind of wrote it off as not meant to be…. Then I got a Facebook tag and a call thanking me… She’d done it and today I got a Facebook message with a note she’d written on her first day of class… Thanking me again for my support. My heart is filled with pride at her accomplishment and my pitiful amount of help, it was the right push at the right time and for that I am grateful I could be there and do it.
