A Hard Lesson

Sometimes learning and growing sucks. Sometimes is downright hurts.

Yesterday, after having a fairly good day despite having anxiety over being so poor (I actually only had enough money to get me back home from campus and get me there and back today and then I didn't know what I was going to do), I decided to go to the gym. I love that my tuition includes a gym membership. I knew I wouldn't be able to buy a lock for a locker so I left my purse and school supplies in my locker on campus and therefore only had my gym bag and student ID at the gym. I put them in a locker without a lock.

When I got back from my workout, my gym bag was gone. Thankfully, I still had my coat, scarf, toque and gloves as well as my change of clothes. No gym bag with some of my martial arts equipment and most distressing....my student ID. I felt so violated. I was depressed. I couldn't afford to replace anything.

On the walk to the gym I had been thinking about how at least one of the benefits of being so impoverished is having so little to lose. I thought that if someone were to steel my purse, the joke was on them. They would get around $8 and a maxed out credit card. Not much gain for the trouble.

But then I was actually robbed. And I learned that I was so wrong. It's harder being robbed when you are so poor because you lose everything you have. You don't have resources to replace anything. What you do have is so much dearer to you than when you can have anything. I really loved that gym bag. It was really useful and I bought it because it was easy to clean which is important for a person like me who sweats a lot when they exercise. And I had a Christmas gift in there too: a hair product for people with curly hair that I absolutely loved and I knew was also expensive. My hand wraps, my mouth guard.....my student ID.

I think I needed to learn this lesson for the kind of work I'm planning on going into. I'll probably work with people living in poverty. Actual poverty, not the student poverty I live in. I need to be merciful, understanding. This experience has given me insight into the life of poverty.

Fortunately, God has performed another miracle in my life and I've just received my funding for school. I was told the earliest it could be in my account was tomorrow, but I have it today! And that is just when I need it. Otherwise, I wasn't sure how I was going to make it to my classes tomorrow. God is good!