Financial Projections

If asked to list those things that act as “centers of gravity” in our personal lives,  I imagine spouses, children, parents, siblings, and the conception of “home” would likely waft to the top of most lists. Typically, these are constants that possess influences of which we are often unaware, whether that be good or bad.  When I first began pondering this, I found myself beginning with these same identities, and while these seemed the most pertinent, it was all a little too easy, too simple, and too convenient that I should choose those people to whom I’d had the most exposure and knew best.  Perhaps by discarding the readily available choices of constancy and affinity, we’d be less likely to overlook other, more minor though still potent, systems of influence.

With that in mind, I’m thankful for the influence of my parents, my former spouse, my teachers, my friends, a few former partners, and Lou Gene Kilgore.  Of those, I know Lou Gene the least well; our interaction was relatively brief, and I got the impression she didn’t want to be friends when she threw her bank statements at me and threatened to sue the branch where I worked.

∞

At the end of a long day – the type of day whereby at the end you’re fairly certain that humans, as a species, are in fact regressing – I was finishing up with a customer when I hurried past a short, bird-like woman who muttered “I wanna talk to you!” in a voice as cuddly as a piece of steel wool.  I didn’t recognize that this was Lou Gene Kilgore, for whom I had opened a checking account approximately a month prior. At some point, Lou Gene had become convinced I had conned her out of the $2000 she used to fund the account, and she had come filled to the brim with all the tenacity she could muster in order to set things right.

Not being one who enjoys confrontation, I nervously thumbed through my records, trying to recall exactly what had transpired and where the funds might have gone.  Lou Gene was correct; the money was gone, but this was as far as cooperation would carry us.  In terms of her problem-solving aptitude, Lou Gene was persistent, though I questioned her methodology – namely her repeated exclamation:  “You stole my money! I want my money now!”  After about the fifth declaration, I kept thinking how much I wish I could punch the bastard who coined the phrase, “The customer is always right” or at least introduce him to Lou Gene.  When I explained the bank would likely frown on me just handing over $2000 but that I’d be happy to research the account to figure out what had happened, she stood up and threw her bank statements at me.  While they were settling all around me, she yelled into my manager’s office that I didn’t know what I was doing before snatching up her statements, warning me that I would be hearing from her lawyer, and leaving the branch.

∞

About a year and a half before Lou Gene and I crossed paths, I’d been contemplating graduate school.  I had gone so far as to apply and had been accepted. Although on the surface, this served  as an excellent defense mechanism to the all too apparent reality that most days, I simply tolerated my job, I truly wanted to return to school.  However, I was afraid.  I was married, my wife and I had secured a nice lifestyle, I’d just recently dropped a chunk of money for my first degree, so the idea of quitting my job, regardless of my feelings about it, seemed counterintuitive.  I worried what my family would think.  I worried about the risks involved.

When I arrived home that evening, I had a message from the University of Alabama.  Some money had become available for a graduate assistantship, and they were curious if I was still interested.  Without hesitation, I looked at my wife and said, “I’m taking it!”  There was no looking back after that.  I was officially off the fence.  A few months later, I was a full-time graduate student, having finally jumped down on the side of the fence I’d been so afraid of and bid farewell to the realm of the financial workforce.  Ten years later, I still hold a reverence for this seemingly minute point in time, this serendipitous collision that altered my course in ways that neither Lou Gene, myself, or her lawyer would have imagined.

This post is part of a synchronized blogging project called The Creative Collective – a group of artists, bloggers, and writers who post on a particular topic every two weeks.  This week’s topic was “The Earth around the Sun, or the Sun around the Earth: Centers of Gravity”  Read more posts on this topic at http://synchrobloggers.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/centers-of-gravity.

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