DailySusan Humor Blog

The Wet Windowsill

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
-- Romans 8:25

A young friend of ours just got a really cool summer internship in New York City. He says it's because he wore the fancy dress socks we got him for Christmas to the interview. We say it's because he knocked THEIR socks off.

I know a lot of people lately who have lost their jobs. They are struggling to hang in there and find a better one. There are sleepless nights and self-doubt. They feel like losers.

I guess that's why I love to hear about people who nail interviews, get good jobs and scale the ladder of success two steps at a time. It gives me hope that maybe someday, something really great like that will happen to me.

And even if it never does, that's OK, too. Because often, the best ''wins'' don’t come the way you expect.

I learned that on a wet windowsill one spring evening long ago. I had foolishly tried out for our high school's drill team. It was enormously competitive.

We learned the routine and practiced like crazy. Girls who had taken dance class since they were in diapers were sweating bullets over those tryouts. It was a big deal.

I had no business being there. I looked like Rodney Dangerfield in a gym full of gazelles. I grinned like Howdy Doody; they smiled like Miss America. I marched like an East Prussian; they glided like Swan Lake.

I remember stumbling awkwardly into the girl in front of me, grinding my toe into her heel, when everybody remembered to take a rhythmic half-step backwards . . . everybody but me, that is.

The judges had their hands over their mouths, and it wasn't in concentration.

But my beautiful, popular and coordinated big sister was already on the squad. Surely, I had ''pull.'' I clung to hope.

That night, the girls on the squad were going to drive around in a caravan. If you heard cars honking in your driveway, screams, and the doorbell ringing, you knew you were off on a teen-dream adventure. You had ''made it.''

I lay on my bed and peered out the window, cranking it open so I could hear. My heart pounded. I sucked in my breath once as the caravan sped down my street. But it passed my house and went a block south. Distant screams of delight wafted over the treetops.

Maybe they were just getting started. Maybe they would work their way back to me.

Silence. Streetlights.

My throat eventually choked up. I left my chin on the windowsill like a hound dog begging for a bone. Tears streamed down my cheeks and pooled up on the windowsill. I wallowed.

It hurt. It really did.

But then I got my mojo back. Rodney Dangerfield never cries for long. Oh, my gosh, I'd better wipe up this windowsill or I'm going to warp the wood. No way was I going to show up at school the next day with puffy, giveaway eyes. Get up off of that thing, take a shower, and eat chocolate. So I did.

Within a few days, I was named the associate editor of our nationally-renowned high-school newspaper. It was a big job, a big honor. There's no way I could have managed to do it along with Drill Squad.

Ohhh. What seemed so bad was really for my good. No, I hadn't ''made it'' . . . but I had been ''made available'' for something better. Something more ''me.''

So to all those with job woes right now, listen up. Quit feeling like you're Rodney Dangerfield; there's a place being made ready for you where you can be a gazelle. Hang in there. Keep trying. Believe. Soon, it'll come.

And while you’re at it, wipe that windowsill, would you? The only thing in your life that should be warped is your sense of humor.

Drill Squad, Schmill Squad. If you have hope, you can ''make it'' anywhere.

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Prayer request: Peace and comfort, Father, for the family of a young man named Jonathan who died after a long illness recently. One of the sweetest stories about Jonathan came from a man who gave the teenager a construction job. But the boss had reservations. He was worried that Jonathan, the polite son of a minister, would be shocked and traumatized by the cursing and carousing of his fellow employees. But what happened? Jonathan's presence on that work team lifted the standards considerably; the work atmosphere turned around 180 degrees because of his positive influence. (1 Timothy 4:12).