Fifteen Minutes Changed Everything
I was working really late hours at a bar.
I mean, really really late hours.
Sometimes I wouldn’t get home until 3 or 4 in the morning
And then I’d be up and out the door for 8 AM classes the next day.
I couldn’t keep up.
So my roommate at the time suggested I apply to the rug store where she was working. It seemed like a pretty grown up job, and I knew nothing about rugs–but I figured I’d give it a go.
I got dressed nice, printed off my resume and drove the fifteen minutes up the mountain into Blowing Rock on that misty February morning. I was so nervous. I really needed the job.
I walked in the big glass door and was overwhelmed with the scent of…rugs. I can’t describe it per se–think your grandparents house mixed with latex. I trotted to the back desk where I found an adorable brunette seated behind a big oak desk. I knew who she was before she even said a word. I’d been hearing stories about these people for the near year I’d been living with my roommate.
I explained who I was and what I was there for, and she flashed a smile and told me the manager was in the office on a call but that she’d pass my resume along.
What came out of my mouth next might have changed everything for me. It was important for me to give my resume to the manager directly. “I’ll wait.”
So the girl and I chatted. In only a few minutes, I learned a lot about her: her love for Greenville, SC. A church she loved. Her obsession with anything Starbucks. Excitement and kindness radiated out of her. As I sat on that uncomfortable couch and she rolled rugs for a new display, I felt something shifting. I didn’t have many close friends. And the ones I did have were from when I was young. I wasn’t familiar with the feeling. You know the one–where you immediately like someone and want to know everything about them.
When something went wrong in the hiring process, those 15 minutes I’d spent with Abby made all the difference. She went to bat for me. And I was offered the job. A job that changed everything for me.
A lot happened in the two years Abby and I worked together. Including, but not limited to: having a maniac manager fired. Having that maniac manager show up unexpected at the store threatening us which resulted in us having to call the police. Running the entire store together for an entire summer while we were in between managers (we weren’t even 21 yet)! Playing epic games of hide and go seek on slow Sundays. But most importantly, I made a friend whom I would come to rely on so much.
In the last eight years we’ve gone through a lot together. Her brother was diagnosed with Wilson’s Disease. I graduated and moved away. She painfully and bravely ended a relationship. We celebrated engagements. She moved to Greenville, SC. And we stood beside each other at our weddings.
And late this summer, she’ll have a little one who will call me Aunt Jo.
All because I waited fifteen minutes.
Love you abs.
