Letter of Gratitude

We received this letter from an airline passenger who was seated by a Pacific Quest student who recently completed the program.  It’s a good reminder of how even brief encounters can leave lasting impressions.

I was in Hawaii until yesterday and had the profound pleasure of sitting next to one of your recent graduates. Please forgive me for referring to her as a graduate as I am certain you have a more appropriate descriptor for someone who has reclaimed their life by experiencing Pacific Quest.

She was on her way home after two amazing soul-nourishing and life-saving months with you. I write to you today as I am back to my own routine and am realizing that the effect of sharing an hour of my life with her is immeasurable. We connected instantly as soon as the doors to the airplane closed and I made a nervous quip about not being sure if the people in the emergency exit rows were paying attention to the two-minute training of how to save all of us in the event of an emergency. To this, she confidently states, “Don’t worry, I just spent two months learning about what I am capable of. I got this.” She had me hooked instantly. She was funny, confident, self-deprecating, attuned to her surroundings and responded appropriately without missing a beat.

We spoke the entire one hour during our shared flight. I felt the universe had conspired to bring this young girl to me at the moment it had. She shared how much the experience at Pacific Quest taught her and prepared her for the rest of her life. I said to her that the universe works in inexplicable ways, but for the most part, it conspires to offer us what we need. Whether we take the hand she offers is entirely up to us. I expressed to her how very much her speaking to me has made me the better and how I know it will make me a better mother to my 11-year old son.

I write to you today for two reasons. One to thank you for the impact you have had on this young woman. What her parents and you have done is nothing short of life-saving. As parents, we are naturally in a cycle of self-doubt, whether every choice is the right choice for our children. I told her that I was in my thirties before having my son because I knew that I had to find strength in the ways I was bent and find confidence in the fact that I was not broken before I could do right by my son. Even then, I second guess all things about my parenting because manufacturing perfection is not possible and I find myself in the quest to manufacture a perfection for him. Hearing her taught me that doing right by our children is a daily call to prayer. It brings us to our knees daily. Indeed it should.

People come into our lives for various reasons. She came into mine for a specific reason. She was before me a child who found her voice and confidence, ready to live the life uniquely hers surrounded by the love of family and friends that is her birth right. As my son’s mother, I ache at every hurt that comes his way and I ache in advance for all that I imagine may come his way. This young woman taught me that I may not always be there physically for my child, but if I continue to be his valiant mother, providing him unbounded, unconditional, and unqualified love, he will have the strength and confidence to withstand what comes his way every step forward. And, that this is the best I can do for him.

Thank you for changing the course of this young woman’s life and for delivering a confident, young woman back to the universe such that the very first person she spoke to after 56 days with you and your team was me. I am ever better. She worried that she had burdened me for sharing her evolution and journey with me. I am hopeful that she is aware how much meeting her, hearing her and feeling her means to me. If you would kindly forward this to her so that she may know unequivocally that her first step back into the life she is meant to live has made such a profound imprint on my life and vicariously on my son’s. For this, I am grateful and forever bound to her well-being. Her happiness and success will be part of my daily call to prayer going forward. I wish for her to know that I am now part of the universe that is conspiring to provide for her heart and soul.

Thank you, again.