My thumb fumbled for the switch. I pushed it smartly to the right and a LED light began to glow red. I didn’t feel nervous — practice brings calm, I guess. I heard my speech teacher Dr. Faye Julian’s voice in my head, “You have to have energy.” I always hear her voice before I speak. My heart beat a little faster. Then I heard my name. Polite clapping faded away.
It was time to earn my keep.
The folks at the Meridian Regional Airport invited me to be a part of their celebration luncheon — they had secured jet service to replace another airline named for a precious metal. It seemed appropriate to me to be speaking at the Riley Center — a place that had reinvented itself. I know I had. And so has the airport. And Downtown Meridian, too. I began to speak.
The worst moments in your life are seeds for the best.
That’s a hard sentence to justify at times. Yet I think about all those moments that seemed so terrible in my life. It was so hard to see the good in something that at the time seemed so sucky. But at the very least, a “worst” moment blasted me out of my of comfort zone. Nothing is ever accomplished in the comfort zone.
The worst moments in your life are seeds for the best.
A few funny cartoons brought laughter. I’ve come to enjoy speaking as much as anything I do. If an audience enjoys you, their energy is like a powerful narcotic. A brain that had been clumsy and balky a few minutes early started to fire on all cylinders.
Sometimes you hit a rock and it sinks you. But most of the time you just bounce off and head off in a better direction. If I had not been a custodian, I would have never been introduced to my wife. If I had not had melanoma, I would not have had a chance to pay my blessing forward. If I hadn’t had a few career hiccups, I would not have been standing in front of this crowd.
The worst moments force you to become creative.
They cause you to experiment. They are gifts served on a platter. Like sand in an oyster, the worst moments are the grit that make the pearls.
But you have to see it that way. And that’s the trick. It can be hard sometimes. Very hard.
I loaded up my car and turned the key. I thought of all the challenges I face in my life. I wondered how I could turn them into opportunity. Then I thought about what an amazing day I had had. I smiled and thought to myself:
The worst moments in life are indeed the seeds for the best.
And then I headed home.