Timing is everything. I don’t have it.

It was Tuesday, January 5th, 2016, and the first day of school since winter break. Not only had it been the first week of school, but also the beginning of soccer season and our guests from Foshan were here with us to greet it. Foshan had fifteen students come to America on a two week journey to experience teenage American life. The first school sponsored event was a boys soccer team game. Everyone had been looking forward to watching the game and spending time with one another. Each Foshan student had a host student they were attending class and living with. Seeing their fellow travelers was rare and in between, so that opportunity to catch up while also enjoying an American pass time was exciting. Except it was cold.

Funny how Christmas was spent in shorts and t-shirts yet a week later it was time to take out long underwear. Everyone was shivering on the bleaches, their bodies shaking with excitement and cold. Some hosts were smart and brought blankets. I was partially on that list, though unlike them I had forgotten the blankets in the car, of which was parked in front of the school. The soccer field is in the back.

“It isn’t worth it,” I tried to coax myself into believing. Reality literally objected when my students frozen hands would brush against my own. It was near the end of the first half when I finally decided it was time to get the blankets. I ran across the parking lot, over the grass covered field, from the back of the school to the very front. It was some of the most exercise I had in awhile. The whole time I felt nervous and gittery. This is the perfect scene for someone to come kidnap me, or worse- be murdered. The once welcoming moon now seemed like a stalker as it watched me. Many times I had to remind myself that it was because of the angle and the light, those shadows are my own. When I finally reached the front of the school, I ran even harder to my vehicle. In the movies it is always when they see hope that it gets shattered. But I had made it back, the car was cold, but I the locks worked just fine and that was all that concerned me. I drove the car back near the games location.

I was winded and out of breath, but I was proud, I brought home the prize, three warm blankets. When I returned my students were very gratefully- for two minutes. Even with the new blankets they decided it was too cold to finish the game. They wanted to go home. So we went home. All of my running, my fears, the risk I had put on my life to achieve those blankets- and all for two minutes of use. My only consolidation was at least we were able to get to the car faster and when we got in it took a shorter amount of time to heat the car.

But really, what does this have to do with anything? That was in JANUARY. It is now March. I wrote the upper portion of this article in January, the night it happened. I had planned to post it soon after but it always managed to make a cozy place at the bottom of my priorities. Finally, after I finished my responsibilities, I was able to come back to this piece. Well that just goes to show how horrible my timing is.