Life is always good.

I happened to find myself at the center of a humorous exchange while on the final leg of my mega commute to work this week. I was on the Washington, D.C. Metro when I found myself seated in the middle of two teachers who were discussing the progress of a troubled student. I don’t usually eavesdrop on conversations, especially those that occur between most patrons on the metro, but this one especially caught my attention because I heard the words “geometry” and “chemistry” mentioned in the same sentence. I know…call me weird or a nerd if you want…most people would never want to listen to a conversation that involves math or a conversation that involves science and certainly not one that involves both in the same sentence. I tuned into this exchange like Fiona, our black lab, when the word “treat” is mentioned. The following is a transcript of the conversation:

Teacher 1: I just can’t understand how this student can do so well in geometry and do sooo poorly in chemistry.
Teacher 2: I wouldn’t take it personally, some students just like math more so than science. I’m sure you are doing everything you can.
Teacher 1: It’s just a shame that the student is going to ruin a good year with a poor showing in chemistry.
Teacher 2: Well chemistry is one of those subjects that you take in high school because it’s required, get by the best you can, and then you never, ever use it again.

At this point, I nearly burst into laughter at the irony of the situation. Here I am, a Chemist, in the middle of a revelation that chemistry is useless after high school. I probably should have spoken up but I wasn’t sure if the teachers would find the situation humorous also or if they would be embarrassed so I just kept it to myself.

For the rest of the trip, I began to think about just how many things come into and out of our life with seemingly little purpose at the moment, but can become immeasurably important as life transpires. I can’t fault the teachers because, in high school, I surely never thought that chemistry would one day pay some of the bills and I certainly couldn’t foresee being immersed in chemistry up to my armpits. Back then, I would have defined chemistry as torture instead of a career.

I know what you are thinking…..this is a blog about adoption and how does this little story relate. Well the story relates to life in general and right now our life is adoption. It describes how life indiscriminately puts us in situations that teach strength and patience though we might not realize it at the time; it illustrates how people, who are seemingly just acquaintances, can unexpectedly have huge impacts on your life and become your biggest supporters, and it teaches that we need to acknowledge and embrace everything that happens in life, good or bad/important or unimportant, because each thing molds us into the people we are and prepares us for things to come. I truly believe everything that has happened in our life has prepared us for this adoption and we have been truly blessed by the people that have entered our lives in recent years who have shared similar experiences even before our adoption journey was ever conceived. As the years pass, I become more and more convinced that life is completely scripted and we are on a journey that was set in stone even before we were ever conceived. Sure we have our little diversions, but we never stray too far from what was meant to be and sometimes the diversions remind us of where we need to be. It took just two complete strangers, less than five minutes of conversation, and a prying ear to remind me that everything in life is important…..life is always good.