Everyone Has a Story - Chapter 1

Everyone Has a Story

Everyone has a story.  Everything has a story.  Every place has a story.  It hit me today as I am traveling from Seattle where I have lived for the past 15 years to New York where I was born and raised.  That would be “upstate New York” where stores are rare, especially those with any kind of personality, and homes and businesses are literally falling down (which is a very sad thing for me to digest) and everyone knows everyone’s business and this can either be significantly to your advantage or obviously to your disadvantage – not New York City where the streets are lined with fashionable and eccentric stores, and where 8.1 million people share the same 305 square miles, and no one cares about your “business” – it is a fend for yourself place where survival of the fittest is the basic motto for many of its inhabitants.  If I had my choice I would not change a thing.  I’d take the simple, safe, small town over the insanity infested City of New York any day, any time.

As I was making my journey through SEA-TAC airport, I notice a number of things that have just seemed to become a part of our everyday life.  There are some people who are simply naturals at making others feel comfortable, and there are others who truly appear to go out of their way to make people feel uncomfortable.  And we all seem to co-habitat throughout the world so closely that the person to the right of you could be miserable and trying their darndest to bring you into their little world of negativity, while the person on your left is making peace by pointing out the bright side and putting a positive spin on any situation.  It’s like a gumball machine – you know it’s going to be a gumball, but you have absolutely no idea what flavor it will be until it is revealed.   As I think about this metaphor, I have come to realize that these gumball machines have red, yellow and green gumballs (with a multitude of shades and colors made from blending those colors).  It seems as those negative, red gumballs are becoming more prevalent than the positive, green ones.  I mean, I’d say that you would get a red gumball probably 3 out of every 5 gumballs drawn.  That means that I have found that about 60% of the people out there are negative or show more negative qualities than positive qualities… a sad, sad realization.

Take for example, the airline worker first.  There were some who were just so very helpful especially given all the newest changes in baggage checking and security check points.  And then there were those who would just say “let’s go - keep this line moving” or “boarding pass…over there” while abruptly pointing to the lane with the fewest people waiting without ever giving you the courtesy of eye contact.  However, it is the passengers just like myself who I am the most concerned with.  I mean we are all traveling, most of us are checking bags, and all of us have to go through security.   But did we all have to be up at the crack of dawn in order to be here by 7 a.m. and were we all up until 2:30 completing our last minute packing, taking care of children and helping a disabled mother pack for her trip only to be awakened by the 4:30 alarm knowing that there was still so much to do including a much needed freshening/wake-up shower?  And I am sure that there was no one else who was dealing with a broken heart from a crying 9 year old who is just so sad that Mommy is leaving her for a week and a twelve year old who is about to have the biggest celebration of her pre-teen life because the biggest thorn in her side, her constant “Nag”, will be gone if only for a week.  Then comes the realization that all of the “necessary” items I had packed will not fit in the suitcase overflowing onto my floor because I HAVE to bring my water pillow – which I had not emptied yet – or the herniated disc in my neck will make my trip miserable.   Now I need a larger suitcase, so I literally dumped all the necessities into the larger suitcase, and to top it all off , realized that I had nothing fast to grab for breakfast so I don’t get nauseous from the handful of medications I popped into my mouth ten minutes ago, all of which caused me to leave 15 minutes later than my normal 15 minutes late, making the ride to the airport just peachy!  There’s my husband (who actually is the love of my life) pointing out the fact that I am ALWAYS LATE and that I ALWAYS pack at the LAST MINUTE.   No, kidding, now tell me something I have not heard before – like EVERYTIME WE GO ANYWHERE!  I know there is no one here who began their day with such splendor as all that -YEAH RIGHT!!!  The sad thing is, this is just a day in the life at the Zarnick house.

In the crazy lives we all live today we seem to forget that everyone has a story.  Let me say that again… EVERYONE HAS A STORY.  From the family with the 15 year old boy engrossed in his iPod, the 4 year old who is crying probably because he, too, was up far too early, the father searching the news and weather on his iPad and the mom working diligently to calm down her 4 year old so as not to disturb other passengers waiting to board the plane, to the disabled woman who is a getting ride in a wheelchair from the nice, also elderly, man who may be needing his own wheelchair service soon. 

As I look around, I notice so many things about so many people, but they are all assumptions based on the stories I have built in my head not really knowing the real truth about them.  We never really know why that slow, cranky, cashier is the only one working on a busy weekday at the most popular magazine stand in the airport – maybe her co-worker was supposed to work but called last minute to say that his wife had been rushed to the hospital for a ruptured appendix, or his daughter had been up all night with a high fever and they were taking her to the E.R., or maybe she is just the slow, cranky lady working solo at the busiest stand at the airport.  Either way, how has your life been enriched by complaining and whining about the fact that she should have more help.  Obviously she does not, so it is what it is – just go with it or go to a different stand.  Ten years from now will you remember this?  No...  But if she told you her story you might.  So no matter where you are and what has frustrated you, remember everyone has a story, everything has a story and every place has a story.  Some stories were not meant to be shared, and some people are not meant to share them.  Not everyone has that courage and gift of being able to share their story with others.  Some people are more private than others and some stories just are no one’s business.

I believe with all my heart that I was meant to tell my story – well at least this one in particular. With a whole lot of courage and a little bit of what others have called my gift, I am going to attempt to share with you a very personal story, one that I have shared with many of the closest people to me.  It all began the Monday after Thanksgiving – November 28, 2005.  This was the day Kelly Dale, the nurse practitioner at the Everett Clinic in Silver Lake, found the 2.5-cm. lump in my left breast…