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December 02, 2005
I'm Over The First Finish Line! Part 2
T minus 8 days and 7 hours, and counting.
It's my firm belief that nothing happens by chance. And sometimes surprising things happen at just the right time that you need them. Some people call it serendipity, others call it divine intervention. Whatever you call it, it happened to me today.
So here I was last night, the day before my deadline, just a little less than $100 short of my goal, making some final appeals to people to give. Granted, I was much further along than being $600 short at recommitment, and I figured if necessary I would just write a check to cover the shortfall and be done with it. But something in me still wanted to be over the top come today. After cashing in some spare change at a CoinStar machine, and having received another donation from Andrew, I started the day just $50 short, tantalizingly close.
One person to whom I had sent a letter but who hadn't responded was my dentist, Dr. Chad. (That's what the office staff calls him, and I actually went to high school with him, so I just call him Chad...very rare for a person to be on a first-name basis with his dentist. But I digress.) I had originally had a dental cleaning scheduled for today, and I figured it would be the best time to ask him in person for a contribution. But because I had a conflict I rescheduled it earlier that week to Wednesday morning.
Unfortunately, Dr. Chad didn't work that Wednesday. But I brought up an issue with the hygienist...I had an irritation in the back of my mouth behind my last molar that was causing some bleeding. The cleaning itself went smoothly, some areas of gingivitis and some bleeding, but the hygienist was concerned about that back area and decided to schedule me to come in to see Dr. Chad. The earliest time slot... Friday, early morning, before the meeting that forced me to reschedule in the first place.
Fast forward to today. I came in and was seated in the chair. If I seemed a bit tense, it's because I was. I was working out in my head how best to ask him for a donation, perfecting my pitch in my head.
Turned out it wasn't necessary. He said when he first saw me, "I think I should give you this," handing me the self-addressed envelope from my fundraising packet. What could I say, other than "thank you"?
But the story doesn't end there. After my appointment, his dental assistant decided to gather some cash donations from the other staff in the office, and even a check from Dr. Chad's partner, Dr. Motooka, whom I had never met. One of the hygienists thanked me personally, since she had an uncle who died of leukemia; and my trusty dental assistant told me that she's a cancer patient herself, going through chemotherapy for colon cancer.
Like I said, what could I say? I went in there just hoping to get a small donation to the cause, and when I did the math later on, it turned out I had taken in $195. Dr. Chad himself donated $100. Nga, Verna, Robin, Nancy, Ellaine, and Dr. Motooka, thank you all!
And added on to the money I had so far, I'm now at a grand total of $1,748...almost $150 over my quota. I'm still on cloud nine, 'cause I've crossed the first finish line of my journey!
So now, once I turn in the funds to Jen tomorrow at final prep, I can finally concentrate on reaching the second finish line, the marathon itself. And that I should know how to do. And if I could raise that much, who knows? A new PR is definitely possible...maybe even a sub-4 hour? Anything is possible now.
Posted by Keith at December 2, 2005 09:59 PM
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Comments
Congratulations on passing your goal! Good luck at the BIG ONE on the 11th!
Eric
Posted by: eric at December 3, 2005 10:59 AM