Provision.

God is good people.

This morning I had plans to head over to campus to pick up a reference letter that I need for my job interview on Monday. At 11:45, I'm in the car and leaving my neighborhood and realize that due to it being close to the lunch hour, I should call the division office and ask if someone will be there to give me the letter that is waiting for me. But when I call, the automated message for the school says that they close at 11:30am on Fridays. aaaaah!  oh no! I try calling both admin assistants directly and just got their voice mails. So I know they are probably gone. I almost turned the car around and drove home. But I hoped that somehow, someway, someone would still be at the school to let me into the office to pick up my letter. I did NOT want to walk into the interview on Monday only having two out of the three letters.

I've had weeks to get these letters pulled together. But reality was that faculty was on vacation and busy starting the summer semester and I was not a priority. However, when I went to campus earlier this week (to pick up my Kaplan book), I ran into the faculty member who had not replied to my requests for a reference letter. She promised she'd do it on Thursday. So I made plans to pick it up on Friday (Kaplan prevented me from picking it up on Thursday). So here I am, in my car, realizing that I'd blown it and would have to pick up my reference letter on Monday after my interview. Sigh.  I hate excuses. I hate getting them and I hate giving them. And in my mind I was determined not to go into my interview passing blame onto my faculty member or stupid campus hours. I was willing to suck it up and look bad.

So I kept driving to campus. I get there and find there are still about three dozen cars sprinkled in the vast parking lots. I park my car and start walking toward the building when a girl calls out to me and says, "Do you know why the Main Building is locked?"  aaaah!!!  I tell her that I myself just learned that they close at 11:30 on Friday mornings. She's dejected and I'm less hopeful, realizing the science/nursing building is probably locked too. But with great hope (and desperation) I walk towards the nursing building. I put my hand on the door and am shocked when it gives. It's NOT locked! Hallelujah! One boundary crossed. A few more steps and I find the main office reception area locked. Shucks. I look through the glass wall and yes, I can see an envelope with my name sitting there. So close.

I head downstairs and find the door to the nursing faculty offices ajar- hoping that someone with a key or password can let me into the office upstairs where my envelope is (I even brought my ID with me to prove it belongs to me). I notice a guy sitting in the student lounge area downstairs, but head toward the faculty offices. No one. I head out the other end of the hallway and track back deciding I should see if that guy has seen any faculty or staff. He says he's not sure, but that there were two ladies that he saw upstairs walking towards the back of the building. I say thanks and rush upstairs. Sure enough the back door to the upstairs faculty office wing/area is open...and that's when I realize that there are TWO entrances to the main office. The main office is just in the middle of the upstairs faculty office area/wing. I can hear that someone is in one of the faculty offices (which is why the entry door is open), so I head into the office wing and head towards the reception desks. The lights are off (but light comes in through the glass wall) and I immediately have this moment of thinking "Wait, could I get in trouble for this?" Would someone think that I had broken in? Surely not- the door was open. So I quickly skirted the desks, grabbed my envelope with my name on it and booked it out of there. Whew!  With my letter in hand I head out the building saying "Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus!"

When I called the office this morning I was disappointed and discouraged. But my God is good and nudged me to keep driving to campus. It could have ended up all for naught, but it ended up okay! God provided. I have my letter. And I don't have to hang my head and apologize on Monday for only having two of the three letters.

Now I'm just hoping that what's written in this reference letter was worth all that stress. I have no idea what she wrote in the letter. My instructor sealed it and signed over the envelope closure. Her opinion is that the reference carries more weight that way. I'm hoping! =)

Okay, my last Kaplan session starts in 30 minutes... Here goes!