Everyday Heroes Come in Many Different Forms

It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it has the potential to completely derail my entire day. I forgot my coffee. I’m not really a coffee-snob, but my coffee has to be a certain way, with a certain kind and amount of sugar (Sugar in the Raw) and a certain kind and amount of creamer (Silk vanilla soy creamer) in a certain container (Yeti or Hydroflask) so that it stays drinking temperature until I finish it at lunch. On this particular day, when I sat all of my things down on my chair and my desk, I realized it immediately. “Please,” I pleaded with myself, “tell me that I simply left it in the car,” but I knew I hadn’t. It was at home. I had a distraction as I got ready to head out the door in the form of a cone-of-shame on the head of a particular hotspot-chewing dog who shall remain nameless (Betsy). In my defense, the coffee wasn’t in its usual container, so maybe it didn’t catch my eye like it usually does. So there it sat, at home, the unfortunate waste of some good caffeine that I regularly need to get me from 8:10-11:20. There was one other distraction that particular morning. I had decided to make some minestrone, (a new recipe), in the crockpot. When dinner distracts my morning routine, things are bound to go amiss. When I discovered the potential disruption of my day, I started the series of steps it takes to regain the day’s momentum. First, a call to Robby, “Have you gone by the house yet? Any chance you can stop by and…Oh, you’re already at work?…OK…Thanks anyway.” Then, to the cupboard for plan B, which is instant Starbucks, and a packet of a Sugar in the Raw look-alike, to be put together in a standby Tervis that I keep in my classroom for one such emergency as this. The only problem I had was the creamer. While the water was heating I went from one potential source to the next, looking for not powered creamer, but liquid. I knew I couldn’t score on my soy creamer, but the next best substitute came from an everyday hero. Jessa couldn’t help overhearing my pleas for liquid creamer in the front office (I know, because school secretaries have nothing better to do first thing in the morning than to get a frantic teacher liquid creamer). “Do you like vanilla creamer?” she asked, “I have some in my classroom. You’re welcome to help yourself.” Saved! I praised her with thanks and blessings and headed off to her classroom to finish putting together my emergency replacement coffee just in time for the arrival of my first class. Forgetting one’s coffee might not seem like a big deal to some people, but to me, it is such a big deal that a creamer-toting friend can be considered a hero, and on the rare occasion that it happens, if she’s there with creamer-in-hand. She’ll be a hero to me.