It was months ago.
I sat in McDonalds after a rude awakening. I just simply sat there watching the people hurry off in different direction to work or school. As for me, I had no where to go. All my friends were in College advancing their studies and careers, while I just simply sat there.
The minutes ticked by on a clock that I could not see; the minutes ticked by for everyone except me.
Sitting there doing nothing, just watching the world pass me by.
I considered myself, at that time, a waste of potential for this planet that is in desperate need of help.
Why?
Because I just sat there… I can’t get a job….
I can’t go to college, for it’s too expensive for my family.
I just sat there… wasting every breath that I had…
And that is when…
the tears started to roll down my cheeks. Unstoppable tears.
The people around me stared, some leaving. I heard whispers of “lets sit far away from her.”
There was nothing I could do, my body refused to move. I just sat there watching life pass me by.
Then, like a miracle someone approached. They gave me a pamphlet and with that they broke the motionless charm that I had placed upon myself.
I took the pamphlet and glanced at it. “Reach out,” it said.
Without knowing, without planning, as the lady walked away I reached out to touch her, to make her wait.
She felt my shaking hand on her arm, I begged her to sit down with me.
She did. A kind woman sat down with me, a person crying early in the morning.
She heard my troubles, she listened to me. She nodded her head a couple of times and she held my hand. I finished my uncontrolled-Spanish rant and she sat with me as the tears began to slow.
She talked to me.
I spoke to her of a book that I have been writing… well trying to write since I was in 7th grade… and she gave me a twenty dollar bill. I refused to accept it. She told to keep that twenty dollar bill and when I finally publish a book, I could pay her back.
She gave me much more than just a twenty dollar bill that day… She gave me hope and something else that day too… faith.
Faith is strong in my family, but I was the only one to lack it. I considered myself an atheist when I started high school, but if I look back I, myself, can see that I never was.
Someday, I plan to repay her with a hundred times more than she gave me. That twenty-dollar bill is up on my wall, hanging reminding me that I must never lose the hope that resides within me.
There are many paths that I can take… many beginnings that lead to different ends.
I have not yet decide which one to choose.
I am slow at that, I know.
The day is coming closer and path is heading a new way. One that I do not know, but seems the best to me.
A twenty-dollar bill…
who knew it had much more worth than simply being twenty dollars.
What do you think?