Thursdays is the day that Danielle (my mentor teacher) and I plan for the following week. Typically, I bring my computer to show her my lesson plans and everything I have going on for ASU classes. This Thursday was no different.
We planned, we talked, and then, we packed up our bags with the things we needed to take home with us. I packed up my laptop, unplugging my flashdrive from the computer, same as I always do. I thought I put it in my bag, but I must have been distracted packing up, because it wasn't there when I got home. I figured I had left it on her desk.
I decidedly couldn't do any school work without my flashdrive, so I just read, played with my kitten, and went to a Relief Society activity. Pretty relaxing, right?
Little did I know what kind of a morning I was about to experience...
I got to school around 8 AM cuz I had to buy lemons to show the kids (our weekly story was Lemonade for Sale). As soon as I got there, I looked over on Danielle's desk, where I was pretty certain it would be.
It wasn't there.
I can't even describe how I felt right then and there. My mind jumped to the worst possible conclusion: it had fallen in the trash can right below where I had set my computer to plan.
Problem: the trash gets emptied every night by the janitorial staff.
Trying not to panic, I went through with the morning, getting the classroom ready for the kiddos, and frantically picking my brain for other possible locations of this tiny little flashdrive.
When the pledge started, I got really emotional, and had tears streaming down my face. A lot of my kiddos looked really worried for me, so I tried to suck it up at least until they went to specials. By the time they left though, the waterworks started again.
I explained to Danielle what had happened, and she let me drive home and look for it, which I did.
I didn't find it in my other bags, I didn't find it in my folders, and I didn't find it in the pocket of the pants I was wearing the day before.
I was seriously praying so hard this whole time, begging Heavenly Father to just send and angel to pick it up out of the trash and put it at my house. Suffice it to say, that didn't happen.
As I prepared myself to go back to school, I was attempting to accept the fact that it was probably in the trash, which I knew got taken out on Fridays sometime. I didn't think I'd find it ever again.
Literally shaking with sobs, and feeling queasy, I texted Danny to tell him I hadn't found it, and I went back to school. I was counting on the fact that I wasn't going to find it anywhere, that I'd have to redo all my huge ASU projects that I had saved on there. I was feeling pretty much like I'd hit rock bottom of student teaching. I had extremely important assignments on that thing and didn't have the time or energy of mind to try to redo them before Monday, when my second evaluation was scheduled for. Danny sent back a message saying that he loved me, and that everything would be okay, and that he was praying for me.
When I got to school, I had to park in the back, near the dumpsters.
Just go look by the dumpsters. I stopped where I was, attempting to get out of my car with my bags again. That certainly hadn't been my thought. They're smelly and nasty.
I started to walk toward the school, and the thought came again: Just go look by the dumpsters.
So I did. I slowly walked toward the dumpsters, scanning the blacktop for my little flash drive; harboring, I suppose, a tiny hope that if it had come to the trash, that it had fallen out on the ground somewhere.
I didn't see it, but got to the dumpsters and was looking at the mounds of trashbags in there.
My first thought was, No way am I looking in there!
I went inside the school, with the mindset that maybe the janitors hadn't taken out our classrooms trash from their custodial office. They had.
Danielle saw me come back in the classroom, hopeless written all over my face, and then I had that same little thought come back: Now look IN the dumpster.
I told Danielle what I was thinking I should do, figured out that the trash would be picked up at noon, and found a kind man who equipped me with a ladder, and a big rolling trashcan to use for sorting.
Yep. I went digging. In the trash.
Rubber gloves and all, I started grabbing bag after bag, and opening them up, searching for some clue that the trash I was looking through had come from our classroom.
Then something interesting happened.
Searching through what was probably close to my 7th or 8th bag of trash, I found a cupcake container from Safeway, probably from the Halloween party, or someone's birthday treat.
My mind immediately remembered that a boy in our class had had a birthday Thursday. His cupcakes were very distinctive. 3 rows of 4 cupcakes in green, purple, and orange.
If you find the cupcake holders, you'll find the thumbdrive. Literally relying on faith, I grabbed the next big trash bag and opened it up. No cupcake holders. Next one.
I sifted through what was probably my 10th bag of trash, and saw the cupcake holders. Heart pounding, I picked through the trash, recognizing the pencil shavings I'd tossed Thursday, as well as some papers.
I lifted another cupcake holder out, and there, in the pencil shavings, was my black and red flashdrive!
I could hardly believe it! I started crying again, this time though, it was tears of relief and happiness.
I knew that without the promptings I'd received from a patient and loving Heavenly Father, I wouldn't have found that flashdrive.
Yet again, my testimony of the power of sincere prayer has been answered.
Lessons learned here: A) I can pray anytime, and anywhere, about anything--because Heavenly Father is looking out for us. B) I need to back up my files from my flashdrive on my computer. Every day.
And I've also gotten a nice dose of perspective. I was super stressed about the assignments that are due coming up. Now, I feel a lot more relaxed.
It could be worse. Much worse.
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