Happy Accidents

Things happen for a reason. I am convinced of it. Life does not cooperate with our plans and it drives us to take unexpected turns. Although, it seems that some people just have things figured out; they make plans, never deviate from them, and things just work out. There is almost a perceived mystic aura of aseptic direction that surrounds that kind of life. I tend to look at myself, a post baccalaureate student finishing my n +1 degree, and wonder sometimes how I was just left with the mystic part.

My life is a series of serendipitous events, a series of happy accidents. Things rarely go according to my master plan. In fact, I am convinced sometimes that my plan may be the accident part, but it is my plan that seems to lead to other opportunities that I wouldn't have found otherwise. I'll go through a couple of examples.

I met Kenz, the love of my life, by happenstance in an English class. She was majoring in Spanish, and I was majoring in Latin American Studies. For as many Spanish classes we both took, we were never in one together. (Well, until we met, then we took a Spanish class together. That's how I got her to fall in love with me, I think. Spanish is the language of love, in case you haven't taken notice yet. -- Funny story -- When Kenz and I were engaged, she asked what my "love language" was, referring to the book. Since I had never heard of the book, I responded, "Spanish.")

Kenz and I worked in a group together and became friends. After that semester during the summer, she went to Washington, DC to intern for Senator Bennett and I bummed around Chile directing a research project for BYU. Somewhere along the way, I had cracked the screen on my phone and could not see anything. Being the creative and poor college student I was, I devised a system to call people despite not being able to see anything on my screen. My system to call my mom was as follows: 1. Push the left top button which would take me to contacts. 2. Push the letter M to take me to contact names beginning with M. 3. Push the scroll button three times. Mad Dog, McKenzie, Mom. (I know, three whopping contacts starting with M, I was that cool.)

Towards the end of the summer, when I had just gotten back from Chile, I went to call my mom. I followed my unfailing dialing routine only to hear, "Hello?" in a voice that was not my mother's. My routine had failed me and I had called Kenz. I was cool enough to tell her that I was trying to call my mom, but I asked if I could call her back in a minute. She said sure.

Serendipity.

After graduation from the MPA program, Kenz and I were Washington bound. Kenz received a job offer and we were literally out of here after graduation ceremonies. We had the perfect place, loved the area, and were settling in when both could not shake the feeling that I should pursue medicine. Since I tell this story too often, we'll fast forward to us in Utah. To beef up my future med school application, I began to volunteer for my local American Red Cross chapter.

Because I was commuting 4 hours a day to the U and back for school, I started out writing public service announcements for them. Last semester while taking and advanced first responder class, I began to wonder if the Red Cross taught first aid and CPR in Spanish and if I could do that for them. As I talked to staff, I learned that there was much more to be done in terms of making services accessible to the Spanish-speaking community. I expressed interest in organizing a program for them to help out.

After two weeks of planning, I found myself presenting a self-sustaining program that would increase the number of bilingual volunteers, improve services accessibility, and involve the Latino community in the Red Cross. The Latino Outreach Program was approved, has four new interns as of this next week, and will be featured in next month's volunteer newsletter. I literally fell into this opportunity that couples my past education with my love of Spanish and the Latino community, and allows me to make a difference in the lives of others.

Serendipity.

When we left VA, it took a lot of faith that this is what we needed to be doing. It has been gut-wrenchingly difficult on multiple levels, but we feel that we have been guided along the way. I guess happy "accidents" are just a part of life.