It’s like kismet or something

Have you ever had one of those situations when it feels like all the stars are aligned in your favor and whatever you’re attempting was just meant to be? I know, they don’t come around often so you may not remember the last time it happened to you, but you remember that feeling, right?

I had one of those days today.

But it didn’t start out that way. It hit early and it hit hard. I think it was before 9 am when I called Denise in near tears. I was so angry and frustrated and aaagh! that I couldn’t even tell her what had happened. It was just enough to say, “I hate this.” She understood.

Well, that was the highlight of the day. It steadily went downhill after that. At 3 pm, I was about as low as I could go without bottoming out completely. I was sitting in my cubicle, completely stressed out and trying to talk myself out of a massive depressive episode, when I remembered my touchstone word of 2008: focus. I needed to shift the focus off me and on to someone or something that deserved attention. (It turns out that those touchstones don’t expire with the calendar. You can call on them anytime.)

So I called the first charitable organization on my list, of the three I have planned to contact this week, and asked for the person in charge of volunteers. Within seconds, I was connected with a very nice person who said she would love to talk to me about opportunities to volunteer…and by the way, was I free at 5:30 tonight? She was leading a volunteer orientation session for two hours this evening and I was welcome to come and learn more about what they had to offer.

I immediately said yes and at 5:30 I pulled into the parking lot of their building. Right across from me was a woman, a decade or so older than I, also getting out of her car and heading into the building. I said hello and asked her how she was, thinking she was another volunteer wanna-be. I should add here that we have had freezing drizzle most of the afternoon and the parking lot was a sheet of ice. She looked a little unsteady on her feet so I made sure I walked close to her so I could grab her if she started to slip. (Although, my track record for walking on ice isn’t stellar.)

It turned out that she was an employee of the organization (which was a good thing because I needed her to badge me into the building) and once inside, she helped me find the room I needed. As the volunteer coordinator welcomed me, the woman I walked in with said, “She’s a keeper. She made sure I got into the building alright. We need more people who care like that.” (That made me feel good although I was thinking, “Yeah, lady, you think that but if I had started to slip out there, I would have grabbed you and thrown you under me to cushion the fall. Oh yeah, I care…about me! Bwahahaha!” Luckily, my filter was on and I didn’t say any of that out loud.)

Well, then she went on her way and the volunteers heard the whole spiel about the organization, what types of volunteer jobs there are and how many training courses are required for each. When we finished, the volunteer coordinator talked with each of us individually to learn what sorts of things interested us.

My first choice? Would be working for the woman with whom I walked into the building. I didn’t know that when I picked it but as soon as I said it, the volunteer coordinator just beamed and said, “I think you’re a cinch for that. You just impressed the supervisor over that area.” (I start training Saturday, as a matter of fact.)

And that was another thing. They are just starting a new cycle of training so I can get started immediately. I should have all my training for this first choice job by the first week of February. Sweet!

The volunteer coordinator also wants to get me into all the other training sessions they offer so that I can become an expert on the organization and its services. Her goal is to have me go out into the community and provide instruction and PR-type presentations. There are training and presentation opportunities in about every department there so they always need people who can do that sort of thing. I think that is my favorite part of my ‘real’ job and here I could do that in my volunteer life too!

So see, everything has just fallen into place. If I hadn’t changed my focus and decided to make that call, I would have missed the orientation, I would have had to wait until April or something to start training, I wouldn’t have met that woman in the parking lot and I might not have impressed her and the volunteer coordinator enough to get two dream volunteer opportunities with my first-choice charitable organization. All my stars aligned.

Sometimes it pays to have a bad day.