You’ve had those days: sleepless night, miserable weather, constantly running late etc etc etc.

I feel for you. I had one of those days yesterday.

Urban dictionary defines these days as “Craptastic.” I think this day can go down in history as the WORST day of the year–and probably the worst in a long time. But my friend, don’t think this is a rant or anything like that. No, I hope today’s story will make you laugh, cry, and contemplate God’s tender mercies.

THE LESSONS

Whenever you’re having a bad day I want you to remember the following:

1. You’re never truly alone. In my experience someone will always be there to help. It might be a stranger, a friend, a family member, someone. Don’t be afraid to ask and accept help.
2. In our darkest hour we should never let go of hope.
3. Something good always comes out of a bad situation.
4. God is mindful of you.
5. He hears your prayers.

FROM BAD TO WORST

It all started like any sleepless day: crappy. I was tired, cranky, and running late for school. Yesterday was a little different from most Wednesdays because I had offered to drop off my siblings to their university (Mount Royal Univeristy, MRU) in the south of the city. On our way there I gave my phone to my brother so he could check out some funny memes–it’s kind of our thing to see who can find the best memes. Anyway, as I was dropping them off there was no place to park so I dropped them off in the middle of the bus stop.

They quickly got out of the car, grabbed their things and off they went. I pulled out and headed to school. Then it hit me: my brother still has my phone! On any other day I wouldn’t care but today I was working in a new site and I didn’t have the address or the phone number of my boss. I figured I’d pick it up on my way down since I knew the general area and would have to drive by the university.

I got to my school and began working on my Mandarin characters. I thought I was doing pretty good with memorizing and writing characters from previous lessons and so I was feeling pretty good. Then I felt my butt get really warm and slowly start cooling off. I thought, “hmm, must be my leg falling asleep.” I shifted over only to realize I was sitting in a puddle of water. My water bottle (which I had in my bag) had opened and spilled on the floor right where I was sitting. So yeah, I got up and it looked like I had “wet myself” while studying Chinese. What can I say, those characters are pretty scary.

I decided not to make a big deal out of this so I just went into class and sat down. The professor announced we would be having a quiz and I realized I had studied the wrong characters. I answered one out of ten questions: Slow (慢 , Màn). That’s how I felt this day was going.

After class I quickly found a phone and got in touch with my brother and my boss and arranged to pick up my phone on the way down to my new work site. I drove back down to MRU and waited for my brother at the passenger drop-off site.

It started to snow.

I turned off my car because I didn’t want it idling but left the radio going. I realized I had left my lights on for a couple minutes so I turned off my car completely. I waited for 10 minutes and though “I should drive around and see if I can spot Edy”. I turned the key and nothing happened. Dang it. My battery is dead; or so I thought.

I asked around to see if anyone had jumper cables and then a girl told me to look in a little side compartment of my car. I found some and she offered to give me a boost. This is where things get REAL good.

MY MRU EXPERIENCE

I’m a car guy. I buy cars and tear them apart so I can rebuild them. It’s one of my hobbies. So this experience made me feel more than a little foolish.

She pulled up to my car and I connected the cables. As I handed her the last connection she tried to place the last cable and zapped herself. I quickly looked over and realized that in my crazed efforts to get this thing started I put the cables backwards on my battery: the red on the black and the black on the red! Oh man. Here’s a nice lady helping me out and I almost shock her to death. Long story short the battery didn’t boost.

After failed attempts to push my car and turn it on on second gear or in reverse ( my car’s a standard) I finally gave up and called my insurance for a tow truck. By this time I had been trying to get my car going for an hour. Also I had pushed it far enough that it was out of the drop-off zone but now stuck in the bus zone.

My insurance said they would find me a towing service and then call me back with details. I called my boss and told him I wasn’t going to be able to come to work and that I would let him know what the situation with my car was later.

An hour went by and I heard nothing from any towing company. I went inside a building to get warm only to see campus security checking out my car. I ran out to see them and this guy chewed me out for having left my car alone without a note.

I was pretty frustrated by now and I said somethings in my mind that I regretted later. So I got back in my car, pulled a blanket over my feet and waited. Finally I get a call and the insurance person tells me the tow truck would be by in 30 min to an hour. Great.

As I waited buses kept pulling up behind me making a tight squeeze into their stop. After an hour I call my insurance and they tell me they will have to get another tow company because the other one wanted to charge me more money. I was pretty rude to the lady on the phone and after hanging up I realized that I was mad.

Then a second security guy came over and began telling me that people saw me drive off the place where I was parked. He begins to insinuate that he’s going to give me a ticket for parking in a bus zone. I told him I was waiting on a tow truck because I couldn’t move.

Not too long after him a bus pulls up behind me and the driver starts blowing his horn at me. I snapped. I opened the door and as he was coming towards me I yelled,

“I’M STUCK! I’M WAITING FOR A TOW TRUCK! I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY!”

He was pretty shocked and just walked back into his bus and drove around me.

And then it happened.

I broke down and I started to ball my eyes out. I kept thinking, “what’s wrong with me? Why am I such a girl?” (Pardon me ladies, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind).

I quickly composed myself and Googled, “Why do people cry when they’re stressed?”

You should check out the results, Web MD has a really insightful article called Why We Cry: The Truth about tearing up.

I called my brother again and he left his class to come help me push the car out of the way of the buses–he even bought me Tim Horton’s hot chocolate and a jelly-filled doughnut! That man’s a saint.

FROM CRAPPY TO FANTASTIC

After waiting for four hours another tow truck finally came. He quickly pulled my car into his tow and we were on our way home. It was just after 4pm and I was ready to just crawl in my bed and die. No, seriously I just wanted this day to end.

As I sat down I noticed a blue book on his dashboard and made out some faint gold lettering. I asked the driver what that book was and he just said,

“It’s the Mormon’s book. It’s like the Bible and it has a lot of similar stuff from it. I think they copied the Bible because it has the 10 commandments and other Old Testament prophets in there.”

I asked him if he was a Mormon and he said he was not. He asked me what I was and I told him, “I’m a Mormon. That’s why I recognized that book.”

We began talking about his faith and mine, his beliefs in God and his love of history and politics and family. He told me he was Catholic and from Eritrea and that he had been driving a truck for five years. This was such a welcomed conversation.

When we spoke politics I told him about my studies at the University where I’ve studied Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, US and Canada. He then asked me about my language skills and I told him about my love for languages. Then he said something that I’ve been thinking of a lot lately.

He said, “Brother, this world’s history can be summed up with having two kinds of people: the people who control people and the people who don’t control nothing. If you are not in the politics you will not control people and you will be nothing.”

I agree with him to a certain extent. I love politics and I know personally what political participation can do for a person in good and bad way. I think I would restate his sentence to mean that there are “those who lead and those who follow.” In fact, politics is simply the pursuit and administration of power to do good or bad.

In this sense we can all be an influence for good as we harvest and develop in us those things that will enable us to be strong, to be powerful. We cannot control the world, but we can make our own little circle of power and influence a safe haven for those who have been oppressed in any sense of the word. We have power. Human beings are powerful people.

The rest of the ride home we spoke of our families, the difference in North American culture and our cultures and about the Book of Mormon. When we finally got to my house he expressed great joy in having met me. He loved the idea that I was in school and studying politics. He was the redeemer of my day. He made the “crappy” turn into “fantastic.”

CRAPTASTIC MESSAGE

This is a true story. It’s a good reminder that crummy things happen. But always remember that even though life isn’t always fair it sure is a lot of fun. Crappy things can become fantastic.

Remember that you’ll always have help when you ask for it. You can always grow from what has happened. Most importantly, you will never be alone because God is always watching over you and is mindful of your needs.

Have a craptastic day!