Nothing is inconsequential. Too often we let moments go by without considering their importance.

While I’m not trying to make you paranoid, I would like to encourage you to be more conscious of the opportunities that your life presents each and every day. Sometimes, the seemingly smallest decisions are the ones that can change the entire course of your life. Getting in the car 10 seconds earlier could have caused you to be in an accident, or to have avoided one. Saying hello to someone in line at Rite-Aid could lead to meeting your future spouse.

A little story about me…

A neighbor once asked me to take in their mail while they were away on vacation. I saved it all in a brown paper grocery sack, which I delivered to them once they returned.

The following day, I noticed a Pizza Hut flyer addressed to them lying on the ground. Somehow, it hadn’t made it into the bag.

I was going to throw it out. Most people would have thrown it out. But instead, I walked back over to their house to give it to them.

My neighbor’s elderly mother was visiting. She was watching a soap opera and invited me in to watch with her. I agreed.

This was a Friday, and for those of you who are unfamiliar with soap operas, Friday episodes are typically cliff-hangers designed to get you to tune in again on Monday. This Friday was particularly suspenseful (to an 11-year-old)– a wedding thwarted by the appearance of the groom’s ex-wife (who was thought to have died years earlier), courtesy of the bride’s jilted ex-lover.

I was intrigued and asked a bunch of questions about the characters’ relationships. I tuned in on Monday, and Tuesday, and the day after that. I was hooked.

This was back in the day where 14.4 modems were the fastest available on the market, just being able to put an image on a website was VERY cool, domain names were $65/yr through Network Solutions, and Geocities was popular.

One day I logged on to America Online and found a messageboard about this soap opera. I made new online friends, and learned primitive HTML so I could setup my AOL member’s page in homage to my favorite soap couple.

None of the major TV networks even HAD websites at that point. Those pages (I can still see them now — tables with borders, bright purple backgrounds, pages that scrolled for miles…) led to official work for the network, for some of the actors on different soaps, and to actual paying gigs.

This may not seem all that exciting to you.

Except… I was 11. And a homeless runaway foster kid who hid at my “real” parents’ house (*they* weren’t going to turn me back in — one of those six of one, half-dozen of the other situations) so I could get on their AOL and lose myself for awhile.

The money I was secretly earning from those websites paid for me to escape to a really good boarding school, where I made amazing friends whose amazing parents always made sure I had a safe place to stay on holidays and had amazing teachers who treated me like I was capable of achieving anything. The experience led to other jobs that paid for college. The taste of working for myself taught me to never settle or compromise, and is why I work for myself now and would never have it any other way.

More importantly, I also met a woman through those messageboards (and later in “real life”) who took me under her wing and made me believe that I was deserving of a happy, successful life. She and I remain close friends to this day. Even if I hadn’t been able to escape, having her support could have kept me going through almost anything.

All because of a Pizza Hut flyer.

Have you had a Pizza Hut flyer in your life? Please share in the comments!