My oldest friend, who I am still friends with today, Laura, and her family always went out west for summer vacations. I have known her since we were four. Her father was a geology professor at the same college where my dad taught English. My family spent our summers in New Hampshire at my grandmother’s house and visiting with our cousins. We had the East coast experience, but her family had the pioneer experience. The West. I remember looking at pictures at Laura’s house upon their return, of Colorado, Montana, Utah… Oh wow, did I want to go see those mountains in person.

I remember part of a conversation I had with my gay BFF when I was in college. I don’t know what I was manifesting, but it must have been quite a bit, because he told me, “God never listens to me. He is too busy listening to you.” This is a reminder to me, for one, about the Law of Attraction and how attitude is everything, but I didn’t know that then, and two, that I have been asking God (the Universe) for things for a long time. There are about three things that really showed me that what I believe in, I can manifest. What I work hard for, I can accomplish. And it is not always in my timing. This is one of them:

When I was twelve, I started asking for calendars with photographs of America. When I was in college, I found a coffee table book on sale, with photographs of America. By the time I left college, the binding was broken and fell open at the Colorado pages. I didn’t see how I would ever get there. And my naivety led me to dream that someday my husband and I would go there together. Well, that never happened.

When I was twenty-nine and living in Atlanta, I started working for a computer company through a temp agency. We were working on contract at an insurance company. I had only joined the corporate world the year before with a computer software company (that was bought out and I lost the job). I promise you I did not know anything about computers, my first day at that job, I had to ask them how to turn the computer on. But I stayed after work every day studying Microsoft Office to catch up with the rest of the world. I only really ever wanted to be an artist and an author, so I didn’t know much about being an administrative assistant, but I knew how to help people. At the new job I was working for two lower managers. I was supposed to get a permanent job with them four weeks after starting. I asked them every week after the first month, “When will I get to be permanent?” “Soon,” was always the answer.

Meanwhile, (my first day, actually) I noticed they had an office in Denver, Colorado. Holy **it!!! I am asking for it!!! I had not asked God for much in those last few years. I had turned into a pessimist. But no longer! I had wanted this dream since I was twelve and husband or no husband, I was going to ask for it and trust God for it. Sometimes you just have to do things on your own; you cannot wait on someone else to show up and hold your hand when the opportunity presents itself. So now you know why I was so eager to get on board permanently. I decided the first thing to do was to make friends with the admin in the Denver office so I could know when a job opened up.

I started the job in June and things were going so well. Kelly (the Denver admin) and I were getting to be good buddies. Deep into October I finally got the permanent job. And this is where you have to believe that God’s timing is everything because you do not know what is going on behind the scenes. All I could see was, I wanted to go to Colorado and they were prolonging my chance. Would it even happen? Had I bugged management too much about being on permanent? Would I just be a temp forever? What I could not see was that the admin for the director of my department, who lived in North Carolina, was moving on to a different job and the director wanted me to be his admin. I was floored. (Yes, God can give you things greater than what you even asked for.) I would be working for the two upper managers and in my job offer discussion, they told me to name my salary. Holy **it!!! I only just learned how to turn on a computer a year earlier, making $12.50 an hour. A year later I was being told I could ask for any salary I wanted! I did my research for a range and I asked for the middle. I didn’t quite get what I asked for, but close to it. A significant increase. What would I do with all that money?! (Save it for Colorado.)

At this point in my dream not a single solitary soul knew anything about it. I have since learned, that I was very smart not to bring other people into a fledging dream. Let the seed take root first. So for five months I was the only one who knew. The same week that I was hired on permanent I was relaxing at my desk and decided to call Kelly.

“Hey! What are you doing?” I asked.

“Filling out college applications for Texas,” she casually said, as if it were just another day.

Holy Shit!!!

I jumped up from my seat, “WHEN ARE YOU LEAVING?!”

“Why?” she asked.

She became the first person to know my secret plan, though she couldn’t understand why I wanted to move to Colorado. (She was from New York, which explained it.) Kelly kept my secret.

Then came time for the Atlanta office Christmas party. I was asked to take charge of planning it. The wheels were turning in my dream-filled mind. The Denver VP was coming to Atlanta for our party. Hmmm. So I sat him at my table beside me so he could go ahead and get to know me and know he liked me and would want me to be his admin. Worked like a charm. He loved me. However, he did not have a clue what I was planning. 😉

My oldest friend, Laura, just happened to have gotten married in Michigan in August and moved to Denver in September. Now it was time to pull her into my plan. In February I flew out to Colorado (for the first time ever!) to see her and meet Kelly! Yes, yes! Colorado was everything I dreamed of and wanted. In April (yes, April) Kelly called me.

“It’s time to tell them,” She said.  Wow. Here it is. My moment has come.

The next day I talked to my boss and she talked to hers. He asked me how I even knew there was an opening. I told him Kelly and I talked all the time. He smiled and said, “Well, I need to talk with her boss.”

About an hour later, Ricky came over to my desk and said, “Now are you sure you want to do this?”

OMG. I had been planning for so long. I was so used to not having it, I never reallllly thought about what it would mean to have it. I would be states away from my family. I only really had one friend out there. I think the color drained from my face in the split second I was thinking this and then came the thought I will always remember when starting something new. “You’ve been here and done this. GO!”

I looked at Ricky and said with full confidence, “Yes. I’m sure.”

He smiled and said, “You’re going.”

Holy shit!!!

I moved in mid-June 2000 and lived in Colorado for eight years on my own.

I am working on another project with God now, but I cannot tell anyone. It needs to take root.