Jewells of Thought

For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Esther 4:14

Have you ever been in a position where you wonder why I didn’t know that before now?

Fall 2003. I entered St. Mary of the Woods College. There were a couple of reasons why I made the decision to apply to this institution. It was fairly close to home and I knew my way around Terre Haute. Then there was the musical side, I had heard I believe they were called ‘The Madrigals’. My cousin was a part of the musical ladies group during her time there. I received a musical scholarship and was excited to be a part of the harmonizing singing team.

My major was Music Education at that point in time. Music was always something natural for me in many ways, yet God used Grandpa Leo’s death to show me two different areas to explore.

One of them being History, of course changed my trajectory somewhat. Before I left this Catholic College, I had a conversation with my Dad and Grandpa. I knew the older brother of one of my Church friends had graduated high school. Apparently, I didn’t take note of where he was going to college like Dad and Grandpa Freddy did. Maybe if they had told me there was another alternate I could have been saved from making my mistake.

Perhaps though, God needed me to fully understand the differences between my religion as a Baptist and the Catholic ways on this campus. However, I still had to apply for the Spring Semester and see what opportunities with scholarships could be attained.

Something else I didn’t know was that Great-Aunt Maxine graduated from Oakland City University. If she had not made the way, my introduction to OCU, might not have been as effortless. It was still Fall of 2003 and my plans had blown up with my leaving SMWC only two weeks into the semester. I had no plans or ideas of what to do except get a job and apply for another college. All I knew was that I was not where I needed to be on that particular campus. ISU was actually one of the ideas floating in my mind, until my conversation with my family.

The fact Aunt Maxine had gone to college and finished her teaching degree gave me an option. I was a 21st Century Scholar and now I was able to also apply for a specific scholarship because of her. I didn’t have a backup plan for this situation. The fact that Grandpa did save my educational endeavor with his knowledge gave me a new game plan. Then I actually changed my major in that span of time to Social Studies.

Have you ever needed a new trajectory out of nowhere? How did you come to that conclusion? How did you recover while redirecting the course you were heading? Which character would you say you were from the book of Esther?