COLLEGE – IN MIRACLES

FINALISTIC FRENZY….the only word that sums it up completely would simply be “stress”.Stress. And more stress.

YOU LIE IN BED, tossing and turning. You are frustrated with yourself. You simply cannot seem to relax. Your mind is racing – if there was any sort of speedometer to calculate it’s speed, it would be well over 100 mph. Your two sisters are softly snoring below you. Grace stirs in her sleep, and suddenly mumbles..”No, I don’t want it! Leave it alone!” The windows are covered in moisture from the cold fog out of doors. You turn and glance at the clock. 12:45. You’ve been lying awake for going on 3 hours.

YOU SIGH AND ROLL over once more. Your mind continues to speak…”Finals tomorrow, 2:00. And you haven’t even glanced at your rhythmic homework yet. And you REALLY need to practice intervals…hopefully you’ll have time to study hard before Iveta comes to pick you up…scholarship meeting the next day…you haven’t even thought about your speech yet…and you haven’t played the harp pieces you’re supposed to perform in weeks…hopefully you can practice after final…and then there is the play dress rehearsal at 7:00…you haven’t even started to practice for the play…harp rehearsal day after that…David’s gonna be prepared and you haven’t even learned the second half of the piece…and then your performance at the Governor’s Mansion right after that…you haven’t come up with a solo for that…and goodness, Nastya, you haven’t tuned the harps in WEEKS….”

GRADUALLY your mind slows…your eyes close…your body relaxes….

AND SUDDENLY, you are in a classroom at night. Tata is sitting at her desk, covered with papers. “Alrrite, youh dictation ees okeh, and you’ll neehd to pehform youh rhythm assighment foh me…”

YOU STAND before her, distressed. “Tata…isn’t there any extra credit? The rhythm….”

“AH, heah youh paper ees. Here, takes a look aht youh grade…”

YOU GLANCE at the paper. It is blank. You shiver with horror. Will you NEVER know what your grade is? What if you fail? Just what if…

“BUT Tata, isn’t there any extra credit……”

************

YEAH, STRESS. You get the picture. I’ve had nightmares for weeks now. And the “extra credit” is a very common factor in them. The extra credit…I should be ok if I can get extra credit…and it’s not only Tata I dream about -  Dr. Gilman plays his role quite frequently. And he is a more grotesque monster even than Tata.

AND WITH ALL my harp events, the upcoming Christmas play, church…the list goes on and on. I thrive under a good challenge – I love challenge – but this has gone a little too far. I’ve experienced the emotions of the drowning, I’m afraid. There are so many things going on that I simply can’t keep up with them all. It’s a matter of  “Ok, what’s going on right now, and when am I supposed to be there??”

I GO TO CHURCH and Felecia walks up to me. “Oh my goodness, Nastya, we haven’t even started to work on caroling for the resthomes!!”

“CAROLING for the….oh YEAH, you’re right, caroling for the resthomes….and when is that?”

MY FOREHEAD is wrinkled as I stare at her apprehensively.

“NEXT Wednesday…”

“NEXT Wednesday…oh, wait!” I wail, rubbing my forehead in consternation. “That’s my final….how can we make it work…”

I BURY my face in my hands as she pats my shoulder sympathetically.

************

OK, ENOUGH COMPLAINING. Now that I’ve gotten over the drama, I’ll go on to the miracles. I did promise miracles in my title, didn’t I? So I did. They weren’t earth shaking. The ground didn’t rumble ominously nor did fire and brimstone fall from heaven. But they were miracles, none the less.

IT WAS a half hour till our sight singing final. Due to my busy schedule, I hadn’t studied like I had wanted to – and now I sat at the piano, rehearsing the solos, duets, rhythms, and intervals Tata would ask us to sing. Cramming, in other words. Mom was busy in the kitchen, racing against the clock to get her butterscotch cookies done in time for us to take some to Tata. I had begged her to make a few for me to bring as a Christmas gift to Tata, and though she had warned that they would probably not be done in time, my dear mother began bringing out her pots and pans.

I SUDDENLY JUMP UP and race into the kitchen to check the clock. Iveta and I should be leaving in ten minutes, and she has not yet arrived – and what’s more, she was supposed to come early enough for us to rehearse one last time together. Me being the time-paranoid person I am, I grabbed the phone. “Yeah…I know it, I’ll be late…but I’m leaving right now ok?” Iveta’s stressed voice sounded over the line.

MY MOM looked up from her messes. “Nastya, I really don’t think the cookies are gonna be done…unless you’re gonna be late…”

IVETA WALKED in the door just as I was about to give up on rhytmic dictations. “Ohh…I shoulda done these earlier…” I moaned. “I can’t get them at all!”

“IT’LL BE ok. They’re easy. What time is it?”

“WE SHOULD be leaving right now…I usually leave a half hour before time to make sure I’m not late, even though it’s only about 10 minutes away…but we can stretch it. Let’s practice.”

WE REHEARSED for about ten minutes before glancing at the clock again. We had twenty minutes to get there, and it usually took around 15-20, due to traffic and lights. And Iveta would need to park, besides.

“WE’VE gotta go!”

“I KNOW it…”

JUST THEN, Grace poked her head around from the kitchen.

“MOM SAYS the cookies will be done in about 2 minutes.”

IVETA and I looked at each other.

“WELL....if it’s just two…I don’t really wanna leave after she’s made them…”

IVETA looked at me and raised her eyebrows.

“I AIN’T speeding.” She stated solemnly.

IT WAS 15 minutes till class before we were on the road, cookies and all.

“WE ARE gonna be so late, Nastya….”

“WELL….if we tell her we’re late because of her cookies, I don’t think she’ll have a problem with it…wait…Iveta, I’m gonna pray.”

“OK, you pray.”

I CLOSED my eyes and clasped my hands in a despairing gesture.

“DEAR JESUS, Thank you for all that you’ve done, but PLEASE help us to get to class on time, God, and if it’s your will, PLEASE help us to do well on the final. Amen.”

IT SEEMED every stoplight we came to was red. Minutes seemed like hours. Using all her knowledge of time saving strategies, Iveta pulled her car into the campus with less than five minutes to spare.

“WE’RE not gonna make it!”

“IT’S OK, God will work it out. I prayed.”

WE BEGAN running. I felt as stupid as I looked, short and squat, plodding along in a straight, long skirt and a backpack as large as a suitcase. My shoe kept slipping off. Stuff kept falling from Iveta’s backpack. We continued to run.

WE ARRIVED at the door and glanced at our watches. To our astonishment, we had nearly made it – almost to the second. We exchanged a happy grin. Then, peeking in the window, we received another complete surprise.

FOR OUR SIGHT singing finals, Tata has only two people come into the classroom at a time. We sign up in pairs and she rehearses us together. As we peeked through the classroom window, we saw that the two students ahead of us were still hard at work. We waited outside the room, catching our breath. Five minutes passed, Ten minutes. “Wow, Nastya, God sure answered that innocent prayer of yours!” Iveta smiled, and I grinned back. Not only had God brought us there in time, but He had given us ten minutes to spare! Isn’t He wonderful? But His wondrous acts weren’t yet finished.

WE OPENED the door and walked in.

“AH, cum een, cum enn, girhls!” Tata greeted us with her cheerful smile.

I WALKED towards her and pulled out the cookie bag.

“MERRY Christmas, Tata!”

HER SMILE gave way to a dropped jaw in disbelief.Then suddenly her face flooded with happiness. Beaming, she took the bag and held out her arms to me.

“AHH…dat ees so NICE of you! Ahh, sank you so vedy much! Ahh, sank you! Dey smell so guhd! Sometimes students weel do dat to me, and it is so nice, because I just sit in dis room for four hours..”

“AW,” I thought, “”I’m sure glad we waited for those cookies!”

IVETA and I seated ourselves for testing and pulled out our books. Tata picked up two papers on her desk and held them out to us. Our dictation finals from last week! How had we done??

“NASTYA, you vedy vedy good, one hundred percent…”

I GRABBED the paper and uttered an exclamation of joy. Yes, I had prayed over that test too. Yet I had hardly dared to hope…a cry of thanks rose to my heavenly Father.

“IVETA, you do much, much bettah!”

“OH MY goodness! Look, Nastya! 40 out for 50 points! And I was praying so hard, God at least 30 points…please, at least 30 points..and it’s almost 40!”

IVETA was overjoyed. Although she got along fine in the written skills, dictation wasn’t her line, and we had spent much time trying to improve that portion of her paperwork.

THE PAPERS set aside, Tata began to drill us. As the minutes passed, my heart began to sink. I messed up when I tried to sing a major 6th and name the notes. And when she asked me to sight sing a piece, I messed up on the end. No such one hundred percent luck on this one!

EVERYTHING FINISHED, Iveta and I leaned forward as Tata wrote figures on her grid. In just moments we would know our final grade for her portion of the class. How had we done?

“NASTYA, on dis final, not bad. You miss only fouh points. Iveta, you miss only fouh points too.”

SILENCE followed as we breathless watched her calculate the last points.

“NOW, youh final grade in dees class. Iveta, you fine. You passed! Nastya, you have…105%. You…you ah ovah de top!”

MY MOUTH dropped as I looked at her smiling face. I was in shock. 105%? How could that be possible? I shook my head in disbelief as I raised my eyes heavenward. There was only one person to praise. Another miracle had been performed. Never could I have managed that on my own!

AND SO this story, though to be continued, ends happily. Though there is more to come, the Great Author has written a wonderful story so far and I am sure that He will continue to do so. What a mighty God we serve! All praise to His dear name!

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Tags: busy, college, cookies, finals, professors, school, sleep, stress, time

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