Surprise!
That's right; today's blog post is about a surprise that happened in the city of Surprise to my surprise back in 2015-2016.
It seems like everyone has testimonies about how God has cured them or a loved one of a severe sickness, but my greatest testimony thus far in life, fortunately sprouted from severe negligence on my behalf. Let's jump right in! 😀
I remember like it was just yesterday. At this point in my life, I was working at a school in Surprise, AZ, which meant that I had to wake up about an hour earlier than I was used to in order to be able to have enough time to get ready, head to work and do all the morning tasks teachers have to do every morning.
Now, this is where I admit to the fact that I used to (keywords "used to") not be very good at managing my time. I "used to" not get up an hour earlier like I should've been getting up at. Instead, I would get up at the very latest I could in order to be able to make it to work with just enough time to set my bag down and be able to greet my kids at the door 30 seconds later -okay I might be exaggerating, that sounds like a very irresponsible teacher, and I wasn't that bad. Either way, the morning this all began was one of those mornings where I was running late, so of course, all through Grand (a diagonal street running through Phoenix), I sped like there was no tomorrow.
The next morning, same thing.
The morning after that... yes, you guessed it; speeding.
This went on for a good amount of time, but there's absolutely no need to get into the gory details. All was well though. I was setting my bag down, I was greeting my students, and it was great. Again, all was well.
Until -yes, we're nearing the surprise- I get home one day and my mom hands me an envelope from the city of Surprise. Sure, I hadn't been an outstanding citizen in the city of Surprise, but I was definitely not expecting anything less because I was oblivious to the fact that speeding might not be very acceptable on this planet Earth that I live in. I open the envelope and out pops a letter with lots and lots of words informing me that I had been speeding, or had passed a red light or something like that and that I had to pay for my mistakes. After having checked online, I was told I owed around $300. "Alright", I said.
The following day, I greet my mom at the door after work and she hands me another envelope; another envelope from the city of Surprise. [copy-paste] I open the envelope and out pops a letter with lots and lots of words informing me that I was speeding, or passed a red light or something like that and that I had to pay for my mistakes. After having checked online, I was told I owed around $300. "Alright", I said.
[copy-paste] The following day, I greet my mom at the door after work and she hands me another envelope; another envelope from the city of Surprise. [copy-paste] I open the envelope and out pops a letter with lots and lots of words informing me that I was speeding, or passed a red light or something like that and that I had to pay for my mistakes. After having checked online, I was told I owed around $300. "Alright", I said.
You get the idea, this happened more than once, or twice or three times. After having received all this mail, I ended up owing the city of Surprise about $2,000. Now, every letter came with pictures of me driving in my car, so there was no doubt I was guilty, but of course, I have a great excuse for all of this. I never, not once, saw those cameras flash and take pictures of me; not once. If I would've seen them flash me the first time, I would've definitely have been a lot more cautious the next time I drove past there. I had no idea the cameras were there, I had no idea I was being photographed for a whole week straight, and I had no clue there was the possibility of cameras flashing you without actually "flashing" you!
Oh yeah, one more surprise, the car I had been driving was still under my sister's name, so all those tickets were under her name as well. Oops. Basically my parents were upset and my sister was a tad bit more upset, so at the first chance they got, they began telling me, "You have to pay those fees, and you have to pay them now". Now get this, at the time, I was a first year teacher at a charter school in Arizona (#RED4Ed-look it up), so God knew how scarce my money supply was at the time. I told my family I wasn't going to pay it; I told them God was going to do something, I didn't know what, but that I wasn't going to end up paying it because my God knew my circumstances.
Of course, my family never left that alone and kept insisting I pay off the fees, so the day they wouldn't give up, I grabbed my laptop and decided to look at the case under my sister's name so they could be pleased with at least that action. When I log in and look the tickets up, I see they have all been "Dismissed by Officer". Hmmm... I pick up the phone, call the city of Surprise, get a lady on the phone and begin asking about my sisters' tickets:
Lady: Alright so it looks like all your tickets have been dismissed.
Me: What does that mean exactly?
Lady: That means you don't have to pay anything for them except a small processing fee for each.
Me: ☺
It seems like everyone has testimonies about how God has cured them or a loved one of a severe sickness, but my greatest testimony thus far in life, fortunately sprouted from severe negligence on my behalf. Let's jump right in! 😀
I remember like it was just yesterday. At this point in my life, I was working at a school in Surprise, AZ, which meant that I had to wake up about an hour earlier than I was used to in order to be able to have enough time to get ready, head to work and do all the morning tasks teachers have to do every morning.
Now, this is where I admit to the fact that I used to (keywords "used to") not be very good at managing my time. I "used to" not get up an hour earlier like I should've been getting up at. Instead, I would get up at the very latest I could in order to be able to make it to work with just enough time to set my bag down and be able to greet my kids at the door 30 seconds later -okay I might be exaggerating, that sounds like a very irresponsible teacher, and I wasn't that bad. Either way, the morning this all began was one of those mornings where I was running late, so of course, all through Grand (a diagonal street running through Phoenix), I sped like there was no tomorrow.
The next morning, same thing.
The morning after that... yes, you guessed it; speeding.
This went on for a good amount of time, but there's absolutely no need to get into the gory details. All was well though. I was setting my bag down, I was greeting my students, and it was great. Again, all was well.
Until -yes, we're nearing the surprise- I get home one day and my mom hands me an envelope from the city of Surprise. Sure, I hadn't been an outstanding citizen in the city of Surprise, but I was definitely not expecting anything less because I was oblivious to the fact that speeding might not be very acceptable on this planet Earth that I live in. I open the envelope and out pops a letter with lots and lots of words informing me that I had been speeding, or had passed a red light or something like that and that I had to pay for my mistakes. After having checked online, I was told I owed around $300. "Alright", I said.
The following day, I greet my mom at the door after work and she hands me another envelope; another envelope from the city of Surprise. [copy-paste] I open the envelope and out pops a letter with lots and lots of words informing me that I was speeding, or passed a red light or something like that and that I had to pay for my mistakes. After having checked online, I was told I owed around $300. "Alright", I said.
[copy-paste] The following day, I greet my mom at the door after work and she hands me another envelope; another envelope from the city of Surprise. [copy-paste] I open the envelope and out pops a letter with lots and lots of words informing me that I was speeding, or passed a red light or something like that and that I had to pay for my mistakes. After having checked online, I was told I owed around $300. "Alright", I said.
You get the idea, this happened more than once, or twice or three times. After having received all this mail, I ended up owing the city of Surprise about $2,000. Now, every letter came with pictures of me driving in my car, so there was no doubt I was guilty, but of course, I have a great excuse for all of this. I never, not once, saw those cameras flash and take pictures of me; not once. If I would've seen them flash me the first time, I would've definitely have been a lot more cautious the next time I drove past there. I had no idea the cameras were there, I had no idea I was being photographed for a whole week straight, and I had no clue there was the possibility of cameras flashing you without actually "flashing" you!
Oh yeah, one more surprise, the car I had been driving was still under my sister's name, so all those tickets were under her name as well. Oops. Basically my parents were upset and my sister was a tad bit more upset, so at the first chance they got, they began telling me, "You have to pay those fees, and you have to pay them now". Now get this, at the time, I was a first year teacher at a charter school in Arizona (#RED4Ed-look it up), so God knew how scarce my money supply was at the time. I told my family I wasn't going to pay it; I told them God was going to do something, I didn't know what, but that I wasn't going to end up paying it because my God knew my circumstances.
Of course, my family never left that alone and kept insisting I pay off the fees, so the day they wouldn't give up, I grabbed my laptop and decided to look at the case under my sister's name so they could be pleased with at least that action. When I log in and look the tickets up, I see they have all been "Dismissed by Officer". Hmmm... I pick up the phone, call the city of Surprise, get a lady on the phone and begin asking about my sisters' tickets:
Lady: Alright so it looks like all your tickets have been dismissed.
Me: What does that mean exactly?
Lady: That means you don't have to pay anything for them except a small processing fee for each.
Me: ☺
I am irresponsible and disobedient... but GOD.
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