When Life Doesn’t Even Give You Lemons…

Well, I am in Mississippi, my move is complete, and it went just about as poorly as it could. 

My overnight stop in my college town was cancelled because an infectious disease was spreading rampant throughout the campus. I then spent the morning of my drive throwing up (thank you POTS nausea and stress). Then I proceeded to drive half of the eleven hour trip, got into a car accident with all of my furniture and clothes and dishes stuffed in the back, watched my car’s coolant puddle in the parking lot of an Alabama Hobby Lobby, was told I had to leave my car at a body shop in the middle of nowhere where it would take two to three weeks to be fixed, broke down on the side of the road three times in the two-mile trip from the accident site to the body shop, reserved a rental car thanks to insurance coverage, went to the rental car company and they were out of every single car, and then just sat down in a chair in the waiting room and attempted to collect my loose marbles. 

When you have autoimmune diseases that disallow standing for long periods of time, produce excessive dryness, and flare in the heat, roasting in the afternoon simmer of a Deep South’s summer day is not quite pleasurable. Ironically, I had been saving my lunch pit stop for later, so I hadn’t eaten for hours and I also drank all of my water. And yet, those three hours were nowhere near as bad as I thought they would be. I could maintain composure in the heat with my face flashed red and sweat pooling in places where I did not know sweat could pool. In one of the worst possible physical and stressful situations I could be in, my body managed to hold up and did not even hurl me into an unrecoverable flare. My body was tested, and, for once, the diseases didn’t win this one.

After about 50 phone calls between my parents, my boyfriend, and my insurance, I spent the night in a hotel in small town Alabama. Because the rental car company had no cars available, I was stranded and had no way to get to Mississippi. My wonderful mother proceeded to drive 6 hours to retrieve me and all of my things from my car, then drove me the entire rest of the way to Mississippi. She kept me sane and laughing, my father helped me with insurance policies, and my sister texted me funny memes and supportive quotations. At the end of it all, my boyfriend had arrived at our apartment in Mississippi earlier and surprised me by standing in the living room when I opened the front door. That embrace after two months apart reminded me that even though the trip up to Mississippi could not have gone much worse, with the exception of me dying, he was the reason for it all. The destination beat the journey on this one.

I honestly look back on this experience and cannot help but roll my eyes and laugh. Of course such a series of events would unfold. Someone up there is testing my resilience… Granted, I do slip into the occasional meltdown and spiral of self pity, but my people always stick by my side and pull me out of it. When life gives you lemons, you really begin to see who’s there to help you make the lemonade.