Life’s Little Surprises

When I was 21 years old, I moved from PA to Indiana to attend graduate school. I was launching myself into the big, wide, and flat (in the case of Hoosier state) world – 600 miles from my nearest friend.

But I felt ready for the challenge. After all, things had gone pretty well for me up to this point. I had been accepted to my top choice school (Take that, Dr. F.! – see Sting of Rejection), and they had graciously offered a teaching assistant position that would grant me free tuition and a paycheck. Woot!

I was a little nervous, but mostly excited, about my new job. The letter from Purdue stated that I would be assisting with Psychology 444. Wow, a 400-level class, I thought. How cool is that? Funny, they didn’t list the title…

Let me pause to interject a little backstory here. If you knew me as a kid, it would have taken you less than two seconds to sum up that Barb = introvert. I was quiet… and serious – we’re talking scowl-worthy serious. And my patronus… was a bookworm. Well, that’s a pretty good combo if you want to be a good student. However, just the fleeting thought of speaking up in class caused my palms to sweat and my heart to jackhammer. I avoided it at all costs. And so my class participation scores were always low, and the comment box contained the constant refrain of “Barbara does not speak up in class”.

Now that we’re on the same page, let’s hustle back to Psychology 444 and the day I went to the school office to retrieve my classroom key and schedule. That’s when the friendly administrative assistant smiled and chirped, “So you’re the new sex TA!”

The WHAT?!

“Psychology 444 – that’s Human Sexuality,” she cheerfully explained.

Why is it that lightning bolts never smite when you want them to?

I have never wanted to be smote so truly, madly, deeply, badly as I did at that moment.

But the sky remained exasperatingly blue.

And so…

For the next two years… three times a week… Barbara spoke up in class… leading discussions on every possible perversion, aversion, and diversion of human “reproduction”.

I have never been the same.

Well, with one exception…

my patronus.

PROMPT: Like the letter from Hogwarts, the tornado to Oz, or the foot in the glass slipper – some things happen out of the blue and a character is forever changed. Have you had a life-changing event that you could incorporate into a story? What big surprises could you throw at your characters, just to see how they react? Composers – toss in some accidentals just for fun. Visual artists – now’s your chance to shock with shadows.

Can’t you just tell that today is going to be GREAT in so many surprising ways?