22 Minutes to Change Your Life

Read Time: 5 Minutes

This past Saturday I had one mission…

Get my daughter enrolled for Summer Beach Camp.

Our city has an awesome beach camp. Too awesome- it sells out every year, within minutes of opening.

Our daughter LOVES beach camp.

But we had been shut out the last 3 years.

I was a man on a mission.

And, for a while it seemed, a cursed mission.

The camp registration opened at 9:00am, exactly the time that my oldest 2 kids start their Saturday enrichment classes. My wife was working, so it was up to me to handle the drop offs and the registration (which, again, were at the same time).

No problem, I thought.

I got my 4 kids up early and in the car.

I packed A TON of snacks to keep the younger 2 occupied.

I dropped off the older kids and got back in my car 10 minutes before registration went live.

This is going exactly how I planned.

Except that I didn’t have any reception in the parking lot.

OK, I thought, not the end of the world. I’ll just drive down the street and park in the neighborhood when I get reception.

A couple minutes later, I was able to log in to the account.

I saw that there was no Register Here button on the camp website.

Um, OK. Maybe it goes live at 9:00am.

Dear reader, it did NOT go live at 9:00am.

I refreshed the page like a madman.

I logged out and logged back in.

I was looking at the camps for other age groups and they were selling out left and right.

But the ONE camp for my daughter’s age group had no link for me to register.

I looked up the phone number for the Parks & Recreation Department.

Guess what? They weren’t answering.

I could feel the dread coming in.

She’s not going to get in AGAIN.

I’m going to have to explain this to my wife.

I’m going to have to break the bad news to my daughter.

No, I thought. It’s not over yet.

I drove home, refreshing the camp page the entire way.

(OK, I refreshed the page periodically, mainly at stops. Safety first while driving everyone.)

I got to the park near my house.

The camp registration page specifically said they were not accepting in-person registrations. But hey, they weren’t taking online reservations either, so it was worth a shot.

I pulled up to the building.

I checked on my two little ones in the back. They were on their 6th or 7th snack, but they were doing just fine.

I ran up to the door.

It was black.

I pulled on the door.

It was locked.

Ughhhhhhh.

OK, there was one other building.

I pulled up to it.

I ran up to the door.

It was lighter, but still dark.

I pulled on the door.

It was locked.

But wait…

There was some movement inside…

A lady walked up to the door.

She opened it with a smile.

I told her I was trying to register for the beach camp.

“Oh yes- they had a technical issue but it’s fixed now.'“

I was so caught off guard I pulled out my phone and checked again without even saying a word.

REGISTER HERE

I looked up, I thanked the woman, and ran back to my car.

My 3 year old said “Daddy it’s taking a long time. Are we going home now?”

Almost sweetie.

I input my daughter’s information.

Entered my credit card details.

SHE WAS IN!!!

I looked at the clock.

It was 9:22am.

There’s always a queue to register for beach camp.

ALWAYS.

But after only 22 minutes, most people had given up.

I was able to get right into the page, with no wait, once the link went live.

Because I kept trying for 22 minutes.

Think about that.

Think about all the other families trying to get their kids into this same camp.

Many had probably been shut out in previous years, just like we had been.

Yet after only 22 minutes, most had given up.

Look back at my morning. All the different points I could have quit.

Said it wasn’t working.

Said it wasn’t meant to be.

Said it was too hard.

As an international student, there will be challenges. Obstacles. Delays.

Let me ruin the suspense right now- it will happen.

But the ones who make it are the ones who keep going.

Wherever you are in your student journey, my hope and prayer for you is that you keep going.

It will probably take longer than 22 minutes.

It might even take longer than it would take most other people to quit.

But if you hang in there, it will be worth it.

I’ll be back next week with more tactical stuff to help guide you on the process of being an international student.

For now, hopefully you can take some comfort in knowing that it takes resilience, that it’s normal to face challenges, that it’s not easy.

And that’s OK.

Because it will be worth it to…

Live Your American Dream.

Josh

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