Being Positive

Picture it! I was driving in Washington D.C., on the section of the beltway that connects Suitland, MD with Alexandria, VA, when my front driver's side tire went flat. At first, I pulled off on the right hand shoulder, as far as I could, and added a can of fix-a-flat, and tried to keep driving, but the product was spewing from around the valve stem. Knowing that I wouldn't be driving long on the flattening tire, I made my way to the left lane. When the tire gave way, I pulled off on the left shoulder and began the process of replacing the tire with the donut spare.

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At the time, I was stationed in D.C., and active duty Navy service members who were stationed in the National Capitol Region were mandated to wear their service blues or service white uniforms, depending on the season. As it was summer, I was in my white uniform.

Being positive in these situations is important, so I thought of all the positive quotes I knew.

Then I just set about doing what I knew how to do. Set jack, loosen lugnuts, jack up car, remove tire. Check, check, check and check.

I could feel the wind as cars were passing me by, drivers zooming home to their families, to dinner, to whatever was important in their lives. I was on the left hand side of the road and working on the left side of the car, so I was safe.

Here’s where my being positive first made a difference.

I got the donut lugged on and was inflating it when someone spoke up behind me. A service member from the U.S. Coast Guard had stopped to ask if I needed help. But this guy didn't just stop. He had driven past, as so many others had, but he had noticed that I was working in my white uniform and that no one was helping. So he had taken the next exit, turned around, and come back to see if I needed assistance. I was floored by his gesture. I was almost done, and I hadn't even gotten so much as a smudge on my uniform (go me!), but the fact that someone, and especially one of my fellow service members, had stopped to see if I need help was very touching.

I made my way to Firestone and got the tire replaced, then went back to my apartment. Meeting with some friends for dinner that evening, I relayed the events. Sara, one of my best friends, said, "You were stuck on the road, in your uniform, and all the people with 'God Bless America' and 'We Support Our Troops' bumper stickers were just passing you by?" This seemed like quite a negative correlation, and I hadn't thought of it that way, but it struck me as incredibly ironic and funny.

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What I did take away from that experience was two things. One, there are people in this world who are willing to help you, and sometimes you don't even have to ask, but you do have to be in the right place, at the right time. The second thing was that, at the time, there were sections of the beltway that were jersey walled on the left side, and if my tire had gone flat in one of those regions, I would have been obligated to drive on a flat tire all the way to Virginia. So, the tire, having to go flat, did so at a reasonably safe location, and I counted that as a blessing.
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Being positive! It really helped!