Plot Twist

And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”
— David Byrne

I’m writing the story of my life.

Not here, but now.

This past Christmas, my daughter gave me Storyworth, a storytelling toolkit. Each week, I receive an email with a question she pre-selected for me to answer. At the end of the year, I will have a memoir of sorts — part reflection, part advice column, part family scrapbook.

The questions so far have ranged from sentimental to practical, and all have made me stop and think. But one in particular made me look at my life a little differently:

What’s a small decision you made that ended up having a big impact on your life?

I’m not sure I had ever thought much about the small decisions.

Life is full of big ones. Where to go to college. Where to live. Who (or whether) to marry. Which career path to take. When to leave. When to stay.

Those are the decisions we remember. The ones that feel important at the time. The ones we think will determine what happens next.

And once we have made them, it is easy to believe we have a plan. We know where we are going. We can picture the next chapter, maybe even the one after that.

But life has a way of reminding us that things don’t always go according to plan.

Sometimes, there’s a plot twist.

A job loss. An illness. A betrayal. A move. A closed door. A chance encounter. An opportunity that appears out of nowhere. Something that changes the story before we have had time to prepare for it.

We don’t always know what’s waiting for us until we turn the page. Nor do we consider how a casual, spur-of-the-moment decision can change the course of our own story — like the seemingly minor detail a good author includes early on, only for us to realize later that it was the pebble that started the landslide.

My daughter’s question got me to ask myself:

Well, how did I get here?

How did I get from being a second-grade teacher to staying home with my children, to opening a literacy center, to becoming an editor, publisher and an advocate for children whose voices deserve to be heard?

How did I re-purpose my purpose?

I always wanted to be a teacher. Anyone who knew me as a child would say it’s no surprise that I became an elementary school teacher.

And then, when my daughter and son were born, I left the job I loved to stay home with them. That was not surprising, either. My plan was simple: I would be home while they were little, and when they were older, I would return to the classroom.

Future mapped out.

But when I began to tiptoe back into teaching, I saw education had changed. There were children who needed more than what they were getting during the school day. I saw a need that was not being met. I had no experience starting a business. I had never considered myself an entrepreneur. I certainly did not have a grand plan to build something from the ground up.

Still, I did it.

I founded a literacy center.

At the time, it felt less like a bold career move and more like a response to something right in front of me. There was a need. I thought I could help. So I took a step.

Looking back, that big decision changed more than I could have known.

It changed my work. It introduced me to families who would stay with me long after our tutoring sessions ended. It showed me that sometimes the work we are meant to do is meant for a bigger purpose than even we know.

Then came a small decision.

After my children were grown and my literacy center was sold, I thought my next chapter would be a quiet one. But I had an idea for a little book that could raise a little money for a cause I care a lot about.

And eventually, it led me here.

To Little Dreamer Press. To telling stories. To children and young adults whose stories deserve to be heard. To advocating for causes I care deeply about. To finding a new purpose.

And to realizing that, when I thought I was closing one book, another was opening in front of me.

It’s a life I didn’t plan, but one that makes sense when I look back at all the pages that came before it.

I still don’t know what’s on the next page.

None of us do.

But maybe that’s not something to fear. After all, who doesn’t like a good cliffhanger?

Sometimes the unexpected page is the one that changes everything. And maybe, every once in a while, that’s the page that helps us understand how we got here.

With every good wish,

Lisa

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