My daughter experienced a very strong lesson in trust these past two days.

It started with a huge disappointment and the seeming “end of the world” and in less than 24 hours turned into a world of new possibilities. I wanted to share because I believe there’s a lesson in it for us all.

My daughter’s plan after graduating college in May was to attend graduate school in the fall, at the College of William & Mary. She was accepted and has been awaiting her financial aid package for months. It’s been frustrating because until she knew what her aid package looked like, she couldn’t proceed with making any other plans. Here she was, planning to move across the country in just a few months, and she couldn’t secure housing, look for a job, or even buy an airline ticket.

Yesterday, she finally received her financial aid package and it consisted of 100% student loans.

William & Mary is not a cheap school, and this basically meant she’d be graduating in two years, close to $100K in debt. Not only an overwhelming situation, but a rather impractical one. Her dreams were crushed. And she reacted the way many of us do when faced with extreme disappointment, with anger and frustration and a lot of tears. Then the question arose, “What am I supposed to do NOW?”

She didn’t see any other open doors because THIS has been the ONLY door for months.

We encouraged her to be open and trust it would all work out. We discussed other possibilities such as considering other grad schools that were less expensive (she got into quite a few), deferring grad school and working for a while to save up some money, and tapping into the strong alumni network at her undergrad college to see what that might reveal. She went to bed last night pretty down, but willing to stay open to the possibilities.

A new day dawns…

This morning she came into my office and reported she had some good news. She had contacted another grad school that she had previously turned down, to see if it was still possible to enroll, and to find out if she could postpone her enrollment for a semester. Turns out both were possible. In fact, they will hold her spot for several YEARS!  It also turns out this school had already awarded her a financial aid package that would cover 100% of her tuition, and while it was still student loans, it was significantly less than William & Mary.

She began considering the possibility that she could work for six months and save up some money and begin grad school in January. In talking to a good friend she discovered he has several cousins who attend the college and suddenly a roommate housing possibility opened up.

By trusting that all was unfolding perfectly, even when on the surface it sucked, and opening up to new possibilities, in less than 24 hours a multitude of opportunities presented.

It was further validation for me that when we trust, and follow where we are being led, instead of forcing the outcome we expect, magic does indeed happen. And, I can’t wait to watch the rest of this situation unfold!