Day 1 of 31: The Shove from Rachel

Me & my friend Rachel

Last week I was a bit bummed about the whole issue of water not being found for my well and the extra house expenses that have been vacuuming away the cash in my savings account (as told in Week 17: Money, Money, Money, Tomorrow). But on Sunday, I found on my desk in my office at work a package from Amazon. I was trying to remember what I might have ordered.  As I opened it, I saw that it was the book The Nesting Place: It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful by Myquillyn Smith. My friend Rachel had recommended this book to me.  I had looked it up and almost clicked the button to order it, but then with all my extra expenses I’m dealing with, I decided I shouldn’t buy myself extra things right now. 

But now this book is on my desk because my friend Rachel bought it and sent it to me. I almost cried because this gift seemed like a gift not only from Rachel and her husband Dave, but also a gift from God.  It was encouraging to know that even when I might feel stressed, God has given me friends to offer me affirmation and love.

A few days later, Rachel tweeted me that I should join a blogging challenge by The Nesting Place author to write something every day for 31 days.  Rachel is all kinds of amazing, and when she suggests something to me, I’m going to do it unless I find a really good reason not to.  So without even checking this blogging challenge out, I told Rach that I’d give it a whirl. 

Rachel and I have known each other from church for almost all of our lives. But she is 4 years older, so we didn’t start hanging out as pals until I graduated from college and moved back to the area.  Then she hosted our small group at her house, and I loved the times I would sit on her barstool talking as she whipped up something for us to eat.  She is the reason that I fell in love with guacamole (her recipe is the best!), and during the winters, I often dream about her hot cocoa with crushed peppermint candy canes and Cool Whip topping. 

Rachel is all about the city life, and if you’ve read my blog, you have noticed that I am straight up building a house in the country.  I grew up on a farm and loved it, but Rachel wants to go to every locally-owned restaurant downtown.  She chuckled at me one time when I was telling a story and said, “It was about sun-down.” 

She stopped me and asked, “Did you just say sun-down? I love that.” We laughed pretty hard.

Rachel has taken me to some great spots in the city and has helped add a little culture and excitement to my life. 

Feb 2012--Super Bowl in Indy!

When Indy was hosting the Super Bowl in 2012, Rachel invited me and a few other girls to go downtown the Friday night before the game to join in the action.  I can’t describe to you how crowded the streets were that night. There were five of us girls, and if we wanted to stick together as we walked, we had to hold onto the person’s jacket in front of us. In the midst of me watching out for any drunken fool who might cause a fight and then cause a trampling effect in the streets, Rachel was eating up the excitement.  There were several people dressed up in crazy costumes.  One guy walked by who was dressed head to toe in silver—even his skin was painted silver.

Rachel pointed towards him, “Ah, I love that guy’s glitter!” Then she looked at me and said, “Will you take a picture of me with him?”

I nodded, and she handed me her phone.  Then she ran off through the ridiculous crowd after the silver man.  I realized that when I nodded and accepted the task of taking the picture, that meant she wanted me to run after him too. So I followed her, running and zig-zagging through the crowd, the whole time shaking my head, thinking Rachel was crazy.  She caught up with the guy, and I got to snap a great pic. 

That was something I would never have done, but I admired Rachel’s tenacity and gumption. I laughed about her running after that man like it was a normal thing to do the whole way home that night. 

That was perhaps the first time Rachel asked me to do something out of my comfort zone.  The next time came about a month later.  We were downtown Indy again, eating at Buca di Beppo for another friend’s birthday.  It was during the Big Ten Tournament, and we saw people all around wearing apparel for IU, Purdue, Michigan State, Ohio State, etc.  In the restaurant, about halfway through our meal, I saw a family that was wearing IU shirts.  My dad has been a huge IU basketball fan since before Bobby Knight, so I also have the Hoosier Hysteria in my blood.  We watch every game that we can.

As I was eating my pasta, I noticed that one of the guys in that IU family looked familiar. I told the girls, “Hey, that looks like Sheehey.”

“What?” They all turned around and looked, but no one else knew who Sheehey was, so they didn’t know what he looked like.

“Hmm,” I said, “I can’t remember his first name, but he’s a sophomore on the IU team. I bet that’s him. They were playing in the tourney here today.”

Rachel said, “You should go over and talk to him.”

“Nah, I don’t even know if it’s him.”

With my lack of enthusiasm, we changed the subject.  A few minutes later, I watched the IU family get up and put their coats on, then leisurely make their way out. 

We also were wrapping up our meal, so a few of us headed to the restroom. I saw the IU family was just now walking out the exit.  Our waitress—who had been super friendly to us all night—was in the hallway, so I pointed towards the IU family and asked her, “Hey, do you know if that guy was on the IU basketball team?”

“Yeah, he was!”

Rachel said, “Mary, you’ve got to go meet him!”

The waitress said, “Yes, you should!”

I turned back to look towards Rachel and my other friend Emily, shrugging because Sheehey and his family had already walked out the door. But then Rachel shoved me on my back and said, “Go!”

At that point, I had no choice but to follow Rachel’s advice. With her shove, I started running through the long hallway of the restaurant, feeling bad for how inappropriate of me it was to run through the restaurant and also wracking my brain to try to remember Sheehey’s first name.

As I opened the first set of exit doors, his name finally came to me. “Will!” I said to myself.  Then I opened the second set of exit doors to the street.  I looked ahead of me, but the IU family wasn’t there.  I looked to the right, and I spotted them about 30 feet down the street.  I started running again and then yelled out, “Hey! Are you Will Sheehey?”

The family turned around to find me running up to them.  Will’s dad smiled and stepped forward and proudly said, “Yes, this is Will.” He then introduced Will’s sister and friends.

I smiled, and by that time Rachel and Emily caught up with us.  I didn’t know it, but Rachel also ran through the hallway while deleting pics on her phone, so she’d have enough memory space to get a photo of me with Will.

Even though she was out of breath, Rachel spoke up. “Oh my gosh!! Her dad is like the biggest IU fan ever! Their family is all about IU! They’ve loved Hoosier basketball for years!”

We all smiled, and I looked at Will and said, “We’ve so enjoyed watching you guys this year. It’s been a lot of fun.” (That year was one of the first years in awhile that we’d had a fun season with some good wins—including the buzzer beater win over #1 ranked Kentucky.)

Will smiled, “Thanks.”

“Yeah, we were really upset when your ankle got injured.”

“Oh, I’m okay now,” he said.

“And how is Jones’ knee? That’s so hard.” Jones was the point guard and was a senior, but had just gotten injured and was out for the season.

Will nodded and said, “He’s staying positive.”

Rachel asked, “Hey, would you mind getting your picture taken with her?”

“Yeah,” he said.  Then he looked at me and said, “I mean, no, I don’t mind.”

Rachel took our picture, we said good-bye to Will and his family, and then Rachel, Emily, and I looked at each other and laughed.

I put my hand over my face and said, “I can’t believe I just did that.”  Running and yelling in public isn’t my thing.  But Rachel was there to give me the shove when I needed it.  I called my dad and proudly told him I had just chased down an IU player and got a pic with him. And I was Will Sheehey’s biggest fan for the next 2 years, cheering him on for every game. I’m sure Will and his dad still remember that night and conclude as I do, that only in Indiana will a girl run after a sophomore non-starter on the college basketball team.

I think of another Rachel in my life—my older sister Rachel.  When I kept dismissing the idea to buy land and build a house, she is the one who ordered a customer catalog for me from a builder. I took it home and looked at the pages every day for a few weeks.  She sat me down at her kitchen table and showed me house layouts on her laptop.  She told me, “Mary, you can do it” when everyone else (besides immediate family members) were of the same opinion as me—that it would be too difficult and too crazy for me. (Read about my fear and hesitancy in Week 1: So Young and Brave and Week 2: Buying Land.) 

Now that my house is only a week or so from being ready for me to move in, I am so thankful that my sister pushed me to consider building it. Sometimes I shake my head and think, I can't believe I just built a house. Though I can’t see the future, I’m sure that my thankfulness for Rachel's shove will only grow through the years.

My sister Rachel & I at my house in June

Sometimes I can be lethargic and not chase after fun things.  Sometimes I am cautious and don’t want to do anything risky or “inappropriate.”  But I’m thankful for the people in my life like my friend Rachel and my sister Rachel who give me a shove in the right direction.  As Christians we are to be salt and light[1], and these Rachels have helped me to be a little more salty and bright. 

When Rachel encouraged me a few days ago to do the #write31days blogging challenge, how could I resist? I usually like to pray about what I’m going to write and spend hours writing the rough draft and then revise and revise and revise. But why not step out of my comfort zone and write something every day for the next 31 days? Even though I won’t have proper time for revision, I’m hoping something beautiful will come out of it.  And it’s not like the next 31 days aren’t like one of the biggest transitions I’ve ever experienced or anything… lol. Maybe this is actually perfect timing.  I had committed to post on my blog once a week for 17 weeks, and I just finished week 17’s post on Tuesday.  So now I plan to finish strong and write for the next 31 days.  I hope you’ll enjoy it.  If not, we can all blame Rachel.

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[1] Matthew 5:13-16: “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.