Destination Unknown (Part II)

As parents who follow the rules, who raise their children to work hard and set goals, my husband and I watch the news about the college cheating scandal and can understand the outrage. You see, once upon a time our son did everything right to get into the college of his choice, and yet he was denied. Great S.A.T scores, great work ethic, great class ranking and a great GPA, he was involved in sports and held down a part time job, and yet his application was denied. We even went through a formal appeal process, and again he was denied. We always wondered why, and at the time we blamed analytics, affirmative action, out of state applicants, and quotas. Today, after this recent scandal, we still wonder why but--and here's the thing--we've moved on.  Everything worked out for the better. He's had an accounting apprenticeship every summer since his freshman year, one semester apprenticeship during which he commuted back and forth from college to work, invitations to four leadership conferences last summer, and this May he will graduate with a degree in accounting and then continue his studies for his masters degree. 

The world is unfair. There will always be people who don't play by the rules, who cheat and use money and privilege to their advantage. But here is what our family has learned: the denial from that one college was just that, one denial. It closed one door, but not all of them, and it took us on a journey for which we hadn't planned, but one which was all the more rewarding ...

This is Part II of our journey. Destination Unknown (Part I) was yesterday.

This morning, I was kneeling  in a small Catholic church in Milledgeville, Georgia. Founded in 1874, Sacred Heart is a beautiful church, and I love the simplicity of the hard wooden pews, the large windows with the old shutters thrown open, the creaky floors, and the smallness of it which makes it seem intimate and cozy. When the church bells started ringing, I looked at the altar and remembered how three and a half years ago those church bells were a beacon of hope for our family.

That day we had come to Milledgeville for a campus tour of Georgia College and State University, and we were there only because a few months earlier Jonathan did not get into the college of his choice. At the time, it was devastating for all of us, something we neither expected nor anticipated considering Jonathan's excellent grades, test scores, and work ethic. We had even appealed, to no avail. We were being called to walk by faith and not by sight, and it wasn't an easy thing to do.  In the midst of our confusion we had begun looking at other schools, which was why we were in Milledgeville. We had no expectations that day and, truthfully, none of us really wanted to be there.

When we drove into town, we stopped at a red light and noticed a small, white clapboard Catholic Church on the corner. At that moment the church bells started ringing so I rolled down my window, and when the sound drifted in with the breeze I felt, for the first time in a long time, a glimmer of clarity, the first spark of hope.

And this morning, there I was kneeling in that very same church. Joe and Timothy were kneeling to my right, and then Jonathan came in, gave me a hug, and knelt beside me. I could not have seen this moment three and a half years ago--how Jonathan would make friends, how he would be asked to be a supplemental instructor his sophomore year, how he would be offered internship after internship, how he would become a senior who is already  accepted into to a Masters Program, and how he would thrive. I couldn't have foreseen any of it.

We had been called to walk by faith and not by sight, and it was only this morning I could finally see how it was meant to be.

Sacred Heart Church