Though Plans Fail

Dear Teacher,  

On April 3, Visha and Ankeet's wedding plans were out the window and they thought their Big Day was ruined!  During their East Indian traditional celebration attended by guests from around the world, the newlyweds were interrupted mid-dance by tornado sirens ripping through the Oklahoma City Convention Center.  When the warning was issued, the entire wedding party was forced to evacuate to the lowest level of the building.  

But when they got there, they found that they weren't alone.  At the lowest floor at the same time as their wedding was the Lone Star Classic Volleyball Tournament, one of the largest girls competitions in the country.  Visha and Ankeet had gone from their beautiful ballroom to a gym packed with hundreds of teenagers on what was supposed to be one of the biggest nights of their lives!  But luckily for them, those teenagers were not about to let their night be ruined, despite the fact that this was also a night that the volleyball players had been working toward for months.  Within minutes, they abandoned their warm-up routines and surrounded the couple, cheering and chanting their names while hoisting them into the air.  This prompted the wedding guests to restart the Garba dance, joined by the volleyball players who learned the dance as they went by watching the others perform.

Visha later said that when they first got the tornado warning, she started crying tears of sadness, as the Garba had been the moment she'd most looked forward to.  Watching the whole night seemingly fall apart felt devastating, but the volleyball players turned the whole thing around by making them feel like royalty.  And as they were surrounded by hundreds of teenagers who actively chose to prioritize their joy over their own plans, she found herself crying for a whole different reason.  The players kept the energy up the entire time they were in the lower level, turning what seemed like catastrophe into community. 

And you, Teacher, there in your classroom, may feel like your 2025-2026 school year plan went out the window.  What you hoped to be the best year ever, may have been compromised by warnings and alarm bells.  Whether health issues, relationship challenges, or workplace trauma, your hopes for a perfect school year were down-graded to basement level.  Yet, surrounded by the energy of your student players, you have persevered, prioritizing their joy over your own, despite your own plans falling apart.  You've turned catastrophe into community by rejoicing over each student's celebratory success.
 

"As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you."
~Isaiah 62:5
 

Rejoicing over you,
Mindy
Christian Educator & School Counselor