Miracles Do Indeed Happen

This morning I traveled from Pittsburgh to Columbus, Ohio for my next chapter visit to Denison University. My flight was at 10:30 AM, and a chapter adviser was scheduled to pick me up from the chapter house at 8:30 AM....seemed simple enough.

All week, I had been trying to plan a meeting with Leanne, a Leadership Consultant from last year who now lives in Pittsburgh. The problem with recruitment visits is that my work day is 3 PM until 3 AM, and normal people work 9 AM-5 PM. We finally decided to meet up this morning at 7 AM for breakfast before I had to leave.

After a wonderful breakfast with Leanne, we started to head back to the chapter house, and roads were blocked EVERYWHERE. The Great Race was going on, so every major downtown road had been closed down for the runners. Leanne tried to go down just about every street, but we had no luck. She felt terrible, but she ended up dropping me off a few blocks away. While I was running back to the Kappa house, I called the adviser to figure out where she was at. She also, was confused with the road closures.

I grabbed my stuff from the Kappa house, and headed towards the adviser, who was on the other side of campus, at least a mile away. It was now 8:45 AM, and I wanted to get to the airport on time. With my two suitcases, briefcase, and business casual attire, I was running through campus and downtown Pittsburgh, looking like a complete fool.

By the time I finally found the adviser, it was 9:15 AM and the airport is half an hour away. Getting to the interstate to get to the airport was also confusing, adding at least another 10 minutes onto the trip. I arrived at the airport at 9:50, and as luck would have it, security lines were ridiculous, stretching at least 200 feet past the normal queue. I had come to terms with the fact that I was not going to make my 10:30 flight, and had already started to think about other options (the 2 PM flight, renting a car, etc.)

BUT I did make it with 5 minutes to spare before the plane door closed. It was a miracle if there ever was one.