"congratulations, you have been selected..."

When I got the email that I had been selected for the Corporate Service Corps, it was a clear fall day.  Leaves were beginning to fall and the air had cooled from the muggy Memphis summer.  The late morning light cast emerald shadows outside my second floor office window.  I read through the text quickly, trying to reorient myself to what it was telling me, recall what could have prompted such an email.  After several frantic minutes of brain searching, I suddenly remembered.  A spring day.  Not long after my second surgery.  And a moment of fearlessness.

Then, my stomach leaped to my throat.  I hadn't even mentioned to Steve that such a program existed, let alone that I had applied for it.

I remember that moment as an eternity of silence.  I played through alternatives in my head of how to tell him, how to explain, the possibility of it and the impossibility.  The children, house, his job, school, dinners.  In the end, I simply forwarded the email to him at work with a single line:  "we need to talk tonight."

His response was quick:  "How about over a bottle of wine?"

Approximately 8 hours later, after the haze of the day had faded, dinner was cleaned up and the children slept peacefully, Steve handed me a glass of my favorite pinot noir with a smile.  I took a deep breath and launched into the speech I had spent the day rehearsing. 

"Steve, I just want you to know I am so sorry.  I mean, I didn't even tell you about this and I just know it's crazy and of course I won't go, it doesn't even make sense...."

He slowly lifted his hand to stop my jumbled onslaught.  "Mel, this is an incredible opportunity.  This is perfect for you.  I want you to do it.  I will take care of the kids or whatever I need to do.  But you have to go.  We will make it work."  #ibmcsc uae