Better

In September 2014, I was tutoring a woman from Mexico City who was trying to improve her English. She'd been living in the U.S. for years and years, and already spoke almost perfectly, so our sessions were relatively easy. One morning she was telling me about a job she used to have at an HR firm in Mexico: to analyze potential employees' numerological signs and use that information either to bring them on or refuse employment based on the personality traits their numbers revealed. I think stuff like that is interesting (if not entirely credible), so I asked her to read my numbers, too.

She asked for the date, time, and location of my birth, and then started adding them up on paper in a triangle format I didn't understand. After a few minutes of calculations, she looked up apologetically and said, "Honey, I'm sorry to tell you this, but you are in for a bad year. See all these numbers? Everyone goes through cycles, some good and some bad, and you are in for a terrible time. Anything you start will fail, anything new will only last at most a year or two and then be gone. Of course, sometimes you can defy the universe and things work out in spite of bad numbers, but this coming year is going to be very bad for you." (See what I mean about not having to correct her English much?)

I laughed it off and told her I wasn't too worried--she'd previously told me that I was a very lucky person and that things had a tendency to work out no matter what with me--and we kept on with the lesson. I also couldn't believe that every day from January 1 through December 31 would really be all bad. And they weren't (or at least, haven't been so far). In retrospect, I actually think the universe messed up the dates a little: things started going bad for me the next month: job, fire, relationship, etc. (you've heard it all before). If numerology believes you have to go through hell and back in order to pay back some kind of karmic debt and learn life lessons, then I must be an enlightened guru by now.

But the point of this post isn't to prove or disprove what she told me. My brother says numerology is a crock because it's based on the assumption that the universe runs on a Western calendar; the bad times I had late last year and into this year are mostly just a run of bad luck, nothing more. Maybe he's right. But either way, I don't care if everything bad that happened was written in the stars or just an unhappy coincidence, because right now, things are definitely on the up and up.

I've got steady employment teaching ESL at two elementary schools and a community college (still no benefits, but that will change one day soon), am making straight A's in my Classroom Management class, and live in a fantastic townhouse with a great roommate. The summer has been full of music and art festivals, downtown escapades, weekend vacations, camping trips, baseball games, beach getaways, and time with family and friends. Sometimes things are so good I'm almost afraid to breathe for fear it will go away, but I believe without a doubt that my Bad Year is coming to a close. I'm sailing high in the knowledge that I am loved, adored, appreciated, and taken care of like never before. And I am thrilled to write that right now, everything is coming up roses . . . like these, from my garden!