My wife has this theory that everyone has a couple specific places, like actual, physical places that when you’re there, you simply belong. Normally such thinking lends me to ask her if she’s been drinking, but this one point has stuck with me for about ten years ever since she first mentioned it to me.
It’s stuck because I buy it. Some of you guys and girls out in BangShift land tuned in to watch and listen to a drag race I was announcing at New England Dragway this past Saturday. Right up front, I’ll tell you that NED is my “spot”. I can remember the first time I passed through the gate as a kid and the immediate sensation that I got. It was honestly life altering.
I’ve had the luck to be able to do the announcing, reporting, and attending events thing all across the country at tracks big and small and although I have been in places that are more modern, have more flash and dash, and run on a budget that makes NED’s look like a pittance, that’s the place that I always have the most fun at, do the best work at, and feel the most comfortable at. I knew from the moment I set foot in that place, about 20 years ago that it would forever be a part of my life in one form or another.
This is certainly not something I’d limit to just automotive stuff either. Maybe it’s a sporting venue or something far smaller like a restaurant, or if you are truly lucky, you’re job.
I’m sure there are people reading this who either have not found their spot, or who haven’t been looking. I’d say get to stepping on both accounts because I think, especially during these times that everyone needs at least one sanctuary in their lives where, even if just for a few hours, or a day, you can escape to and set the problems of the work aside for that time. I feel bad for people who don’t have the ability to walk away from it all for a short amount of time just to keep their sanity.
One of the main reasons I bought into this strange theory of Kerri’s is that I saw her lose her spot in a painful manner. She was the pride of the UMass education department when we were in college. She worked her ass off to earn her teaching degree and in the process endeared herself to every professor she had classes with, teacher she worked next to, and child she helped to mentor. She was given the future educator award over everyone else in her entire school of education. Her GPA was about double mine and she graduated Cum Laude, while I graduated by the skin of my ass. Her spot was the classroom. By all accounts she was a natural.
Immediately after graduation she started peppering resumes to every town in the area. She had long dreamed of teaching in our hometown (where we currently live). While there were no teaching positions immediately available, she could come on as an aide, and assistant. It wasn’t ideal, but she’d be at the head of the line when a classroom came available. By the time that opportunity came she had been do disillusioned by the way the system operated that she walked away from teaching. It was a sad time for her and seeing how down she was, losing access to that special spot cemented my belief in the rather odd theory.
The happy ending to that story came with the addition of the two boys and watching my wife interact and educate them. I really think the little guys have a leg up on the rest of the kids. She’s that good and she’s regained her spot.
I’m interested to hear who else has experienced this same thing. Maybe it’s your shop, the seat of your car, or the house you live in. I know that I break out in hives if I am away from the strip for too long and I’ve not been able to replicate the feeling I get at New England Dragway anywhere else.
What say you? What’s your “spot”?
