Real Life Trumps Real Estate: How to stay positive in tough times

She stood in the cold Vermont air, her breath coming out in perfect smoky puffs, she’d forgotten her purse.

No purse.

No ID.

No Entry.

They’d given her a ride to the real estate license exam, to sell homes that she’d only ever fantasized about; the ones deep down she understood would never be hers. She could see them when she shut her eyes to daydream—the homes with the turrets, patios and perfect pools.

She’d watched as her husband and children drove away into the cold morning fog, promising they would return two hours later.

Her worn red leather purse, cracked and faded, with the broken zip, was still on the floor of their rusted out green Subaru.

By the time she realized. It was too late. She’d scrimped every penny to pay for that test. All she could see was the failure circling the drain of her life. She’d let her daughters down. She slumped against the wall almost collapsing under the weight of her own self-loathing.

She’d missed the test.

It had been her exit point, the ticket to get back on the highway and out of the slummy back streets of prolific poverty. She would have been able to feed her children with ease and stop the constant combat with her husband over every copious cent.

Tears filled her eyes and ran down her face along with the ten year old mascara she’d applied that morning. The cold seeped through her weather worn tennis shoes and numbed her toes. She wrapped her threadbare coat tighter around herself.

They wouldn’t allow her back in the building. Not even to stay warm. She thought, why should they I’m worthless. I can’t even remember my own ID.

She would never feel worthy. It really wasn’t about the test anymore. It was about her.

She was blind, like most of us are, when we are in times of defacing despair. But there is one thing we all know deep down to be true.

EVERYTHING WORKS OUT AS IT SHOULD.

She never went back to repeat that test.

And that was exactly as it ought to have been.

Because she forgot her ID that day she was home waiting at the door the day her daughter was seized by her hair and shoved into a bathroom stall where she was forced to flush her hats and mittens down a toilet on a 0 degree day.

She was there every day of junior high when that same child was surrounded and kicked and told she was nothing. For every action there were reactions of kind words, and hugs. They were still poor. But they had love.

Which was precisely what she needed.

And for that reason her children grew up believing it was okay to be different, that no matter what happened they should never give up on their dreams—their own turrets, patios and perfect pools.

So they didn’t.

Her purpose for missing that test on that horrible hijacked January day, was so two little girls could rise up from adversity, and have the support they needed to grow up to be who they envisioned themselves to be.

One became a writer who hopes to inspire others through her words, the other a teacher who has changed countless children’s lives.

And the woman who forgot her purse? That is my mother.

That day is deeply burned in my mind forever not because of her absence from the exam, but because of the anguish I saw in her eyes. Her entire being emitted an energy, an over the top sensation, that told me she had gone down in perpetual flame. If her eyes could have spoken they would have said, “If only this hadn’t happened in my life, I wouldn’t be in this mess. If only I’d chosen differently.”

But my Mom made that choice, like we all do in our lives. Our lives are a series of choices. Regretting them gets us nowhere.

Every choice you make you chose for a reason. You may not think you cherry-picked it, but you did, even if it’s shrouded by the human eye. You have to lift the veil of despair and look beyond those moments for the why’s. And even if you can’t find them, that’s okay, just remember they’re still there waiting to be discovered.

EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU IN LIFE HAS LED YOU TO THIS MOMENT.

All the things you’ve learned have led to your success or future achievements. Have no regrets. It’s all working out as it’s supposed to.

Because real life trumps real estate every time.

Remember that my dear friends.

Love, Genevieve XOXO

P.S Do you have any regrets that you wish you could take back? Did you learn a valuable lesson? Or realize the reason? Comment below and let’s see if we can find those silver linings.