Don't Open Until May 9, 2017!

In the last few months, I discovered the above envelope while cleaning up items at my childhood home. I can be a notorious pack rat - borderline hoarder - with the many trinkets and letters and papers I hang onto. When I found this envelope, I could remember writing it and where I was when I did. I remember it being towards the end of my junior year at Shades Valley High School in Birmingham. I remember that we were in the school library as part of a business computer applications class (level II keyboarding) and we had a guest speaker that day. I remember that the guest speaker was the husband of the teacher. I now think that to be odd because I would think it odd if I had my wife as a guest speaker in my class. Now, my wife is amazing and would have any class hanging on every word, but that's not - professionally - how we roll.

In all the things I remember about the setting, I could not for the life of me remember what I wrote. Was it personal? Was it professional? Was my teacher so brilliant to create the "Letter to Me" exercise before Brad Paisley could popularize it? I had nothing. Nothing could help me recall.

As we got closer to the said date, I was pondering how I would open it. Were there names of girls on there of who I would be with? Number of children that I wanted or didn't want? I began to decipher a plan and when to execute the letter extraction. I had told my wife about the letter and she was cool with whatever I wanted to do. I told a couple of other friends about this letter and the anticipation. I was getting a nervous excitement about what was waiting.

Then, May 7 came. It was a Sunday. I came home from church, grabbed the letter out of my top dresser drawer and walked outside to the carport. It was a sunny day so I stayed under the shadow. Whatever office supply company made the envelope was a keeper. The adhesive was strong and held the note with the utmost intergrity until this 20th anniversary date with destiny. Okay, ready, here we go....... . . . .

Travel agent. Small business owner. $325,000 uhhhhhh.....what????

That was it?!?!?!? All this time this letter had been hidden and then discovered in some serendipitous event only to reveal that?

I am guessing that guest speaker/business man/life coach/husband asked us 3 questions that day and we had to write down the current date. I am guessing it was 1) what job will you have in 20 years? 2) what industry will you be a part of? and 3) what will your annual salary be? Nope. Nada and Not even close, were the answers to all of those questions. So there were no ex-girlfriends, no map to where the bodies are burried so I guess that is good. But I wanted something more..or did I?

I showed the contents to a couple of friends who were aware of said envelope. In a spin they were able to tell me "you kind of are a travel agent in all the family and work trips you plan, also, how many of the folks that you have worked with in your career that now own their own business. The salary, well, that is something that can carry over to the next letter!"

Having good friends like that is the real lesson of the story. I currently have no desire to be any of those things that I listed. Most of the times our plan is no where near as awesome as what God has planned for us. I am glad that He is in control and not me.