Lost, Then Found

It seems like there are days when all we hear on the news or
in conversation is “bad news”, stories of violence, greed and sadness; but  every once in a while, we hear sweet stories that can restore our faith in the good of the world. The story I’m about to share with you very nearly turned out to be another one in the column of bad news I’m sorry to report ... until it turned around.

My 14 year old daughter left her wallet, unattended, on the
floor of a high school gym last week and when she discovered she didn’t have
it, it was too late, as the wallet had disappeared.

If there are any parents out there reading this right now, your first reaction may be similar to what mine was, “How could you just leave your wallet, full of gift cards and Christmas money, sitting on the floor of the gym?”

The teenagers reading this are likelysaying, “Mom! It wasn’t my fault, I didn’t mean to leave it there, and I forgot it was there when I went to the snack bar ...” or something similar.

The basketball games ended and we started looking for the wallet. As soon as people heard what happened, they joined in the search for the wallet; we looked on every row of bleachers, in all of the trash cans and in the restrooms but we
didn’t find it.

Parents, players, coaches and even the 8-year-old daughter of one of the coaches, who climbed underneath the bleachers, stayed an extra 20 minutes searching and offering their help and trying to soothe the sad teenager who was slowly coming to grips with what happened and was beginning to process the
very difficult lesson she learned that night.

We went home and she expressed a little more sadness but was clearly accepting responsibility for her mistake. I was still a little upset myself but soon realized it was an expensive lesson we all learn at some point in our lives; as hard as it was to watch it unfold in front of me, I knew she would think twice before carelessly leaving her wallet
lying around, not to mention taking such valuable items to school.

The next morning she left for school as usual, with a little less
bounce in her step, and prepared to go about her day. Before continuing I must
say I am aware of the school rules governing cell phone usage during the school
day; however, I received an excited text from my daughter and all it said was
“Mom! I have my wallet!!” I replied with an almost equal amount of excitement
and asked the obvious questions ... how? Where? Who? As it turns out, it was found by another student at TVHS and she brought it back to school the next day and gave it to its ecstatic owner.

The teenagers of Temecula may have their moments but overall I think we are fortunate to live in a town where something like this happens ... it could have turned out much differently than it did and I’m grateful for the return of the wallet but more than anything, this event showed me there is still so much good in this world.

It’s not that difficult to find, just look outside right now and I’ll bet you’ll see people helping and supporting each other. Let’s report this kind of news; the story that makes you smile and say
something like, “See, I told you, the world will be in good hands in years to
come!”

I’d like to say thank you to all the parents, players,
coaches and friends who helped us, without batting an eyelash, turn the TVHS
gym upside down last week….what goes around, comes around.

Ansley is an occasional blogger for Temecula Patch and she
can be reached at ansley@thatyogagirl.com.