I was busy painting while watching the NASCAR pre-show. They were interviewing Clint Bowyer. My head snapped up when I heard him say, “How the hell did this happen?” in reference to where he is today. They showed him in his gorgeous car and home. He said, “I never had money, I’m just a boy from Kansas, and when you get this much, what do you do with it? How the hell did this happen?”
The reason his statement caused me to look up and watch the interview is because I remember myself saying that to people in reference to my own life. I still sit in awe of a little girl in rural upstate NY that spent all her free time alone in her backyard conversing with her imaginary friends. This little girl and her friends always lived and played in fancy imaginary surroundings. She dressed in elastic waste corduroy pants that fell well above her ankles, a cotton long sleeved shirt that barely covered her middle, and a mass of unruly blonde curls sat on her head – at TWELVE years old. Can you imagine a twelve year old dressing that way today? Well, they didn’t back then either, but her parents didn’t have a clue about preteen fashion trends and there wasn’t much money to do anything about it, even if they did.
When that little girl was in high school her parents didn’t have any idea of what her schoolwork consisted of or how to help their child get into college. In fact, college was all her idea and she had to do it all herself. She just more or less informed her parents of the steps along the way and told them what their part was in getting herself there.
I sit in awe of that little girl because coming from her sheltered, rural upbringing, there was not a lot of chance that she would get to where I am today without divine guidance – guidance that she didn’t even ask for. Looking back on the chances of me coming out of that home with parents only concentrating on keeping four kids fed and clothed and giving them a decent amount of amenities, was just pure luck that I made the choices I made and here I am today happily retired here on Cape Cod, after an amazing career. I, too, like Clint Bowyer, look around and say, “How the hell did this happen?”
I empathized with what he was getting at. The difference between us being that he is a high profile person, and I’m just an everyday ordinary person, but – we both had the same kind of life and today look back on it and utter the very same words.
You don’t have to end up a movie star, a pro athlete or a rockstar to have an amazing life and be able to say, “How the hell did this happen?” in reference to it. If I could do it, anybody can do it. Look around and be amazed at what you have accomplished against some challenging odds already. You are amazing. Bask for a few minutes in the glory of what you were able to do.
And so, as another day goes by, when Danika took pole position next to Jeff Gordon, who she idolized at ten years old, I’ll bet she, too, stood there today and said, “How the hell did this happen?”, and…I have written.
Photo: Mine. Umbrella hanging from the ceiling at our local garden center.
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