Jury Duty

Isn’t it amazing how one day can change a person’s life?   It is something that I was thinking about today.  Today was my meeting with the dreaded Jury Duty.  I was happy to go and be a part of the judicial system especially when it has done so much for me.  Everyone there seemed to be in fear of being placed on the jury, but I was the opposite, I was willing to sit and hear the stories and then work with a group of my peers to help figure out whether or not the person was guilty or not.   That was until I was in the court room and heard that the person was accused of Murder in the First Degree and that the incident occurred in 1996.   1996!  Can you imagine waiting for over 15 years to learn your fate for something that you may  or may not have done in ’96.   Back in 1996 I was sitting in Freshman English in high school.   I am upset when things take a few months—much less years.

Needless to say when I heard the charges and realized that if I were to be put on the jury, I would be a fundamental person working to determine what the future of a person’s life would be when I still haven’t fully figured out what I want to do when I grow up.   I am very thankful that there were all of the others in the group who were selected ahead of me in this process.  Given that I second guess what individual items I place in my portfolio for each interview, I couldn’t imagine what the second guessing would be had I been selected- did I let a murderer go out to kill again, or did I send an innocent man to prison?  I am thankful that I will not be part of the trial.  

This has me thinking—where do I want to be in 15 years, what do I want to look back and have accomplished and where would I be.  I know that my wife will likely have progressed in her disease or be on a different medicine for controlling her MS.  The uncertainty of her status is the big thing.  Hope will be driving and beyond that I am truly not sure what I want for when I grow up.   Given my job status, I am hoping to find a nice secure position where I am able to grow and use my vast array of knowledge.  Frankly, I am not confident that where I have landed is where I will stay.  I have grown in my sales ability with doing cold calling, but it will keep me going hopefully until I find my “grown-up” job.   Don’t get me wrong, this is a good position, but it doesn’t feel like long term home.   I am praying that I will find the right position in the next few months.  We’ll keep praying, but you never know what one moment in life will do to the future.  It makes you think about the “Butterfly Effect” and how true it really is.   When Hope was born, we had no idea that we were going to end up meeting this little girl, much less that she would be in the process of becoming one of “us” in less than 2 years.