Timing is everything

Back in the summer between sophomore and junior year of high school, I remember spending five out of seven days of the week in a cramped two-story building that only occasionally sputtered AC through its dusty vents. In the sweltering heat of that summer, I, along with some 30 other unlucky (or fortunate, depending on how you looked at it) high school students scratched numbers in margins, broke down analogies and word roots and filled in standardized test bubbles until our eyes began to glaze over.

Ah, the SATs.

Somewhere in the middle of all this cut-and-dry testing was also the preparation for a much more amorphous aspect of the dreaded exam: the essay. The prompts were, for the most part, broad enough so that each of us was able to tie a pseudo-personal experience to the theme. These cut-and-paste prompts consisted, without fail, of a profound quote followed by an all-inclusive question about how said quote was applicable to our lives. Looking back, given that we were mostly 16-year-olds in the classroom, it was ridiculous to think that we actually had the kind of experiences necessary to relate to some of the quotes.

Some lent themselves to insightful essays, others to meandering tirades about the way systems like school and the SATs were inefficient and inaccurate.

"Distance makes the heart grow fonder."

"Whether you think you can or you can't, you are right."

"Luck favors the prepared mind."

Of the many famous quotes we were instructed to scale down to a personal level, this last one always struck me as particularly interesting. I remember staring at the prompt for a good amount of time, trying to figure out, for the life of me, what it really meant.

Luck favors the prepared mind.

So, essentially, to capitalize on promising circumstances (luck), one has to have been able to forsee it. Right?

When it came time for me to teach these same SAT writing classes two years later, I always pulled this as the sample quote for the class to discuss. Was it that people who could "predict" their good luck got the most of it? Did that mean that optimists were statistically more likely to be lucky? What exactly do people prepare for?

And now I think I know a little better. Luck favors the prepared mind. So much of what is happening right now at this point in my life is a good intersection of preparation and happenstance. It's already July, and the nerve-wracking searches for an apartment and a steady job aren't quite as stressful as I thought they would be. I've done the research, I've put shoe to pavement, and now it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

Very few things in life are guaranteed - health, family, career, friends - even the most basic aspects of our existence can be taken from us in a second. It's not being pessimistic, I don't think, but rather, being realistic. I think you discover this a lot more post-college because there is less of that structure and built-in community that so distinctly characterizes the college experience. And so all a person can do is prepare. Not necessarily for the worst, but just...for life.

It's like the reason why they always tell SAT test takers to bring two pencils. Likely you'll never need that spare one, but the way things happen, the one time you decide you don't need that spare pencil, your only one breaks. You're out of lead. And you're left staring at a test with no means to fill in those dreaded bubbles.

Then all I guess you have to do is raise your hand and ask. And sometimes, if you're lucky, the proctor will have mercy and hand you a pencil and help you out.

Because even though so much of life, of luck, is being in the right place at the right time, to get yourself out of a sticky situation, sometimes all you have to do is raise your hand and ask.

Someone will be over shortly.