Having gone to parochial school all my grade school years, the Proverbs 16:8 admonition of “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” was very familiar to me. But, in this pivotal life event, I was pretty sure it didn’t apply to me.
My friends Tim and Laurens and I, as ninth graders, viewed ourselves as ruling the junior high hallways at Hood View Junior Academy outside Boring, Oregon. We were the big dogs, the top brass, the bee’s knees … at least in our minds.
As was the case at the start of each school year, student association office elections were about to start. We three had decided that this year Tim would be President, Laurens social vice president and I would be the spiritual vice president. We’d had some variation of that the previous year and our trinity was set to “rule again with majesty.”
Tim and Laurens had a bit more competition this time from eighth grade girls. But for me, it was a shoo-in. Mike Jones, my opponent, was not only a seventh grader and new to junior high, but also somewhat new to the school. Posters went up and bantering about the eighth grade opponents commenced.
When election day arrived, the 100 or so of us students gathered in the gymnasium for the speeches. Tim knew he had a fight on his hands and compellingly laid out his vision. Laurens did as well. All seemed well and would turn out well after their speaking rounds. With my election being the shoo-in that it was, I hadn’t bothered to prepare a speech. I stood up, mumbled a few random words, and sat down ready to coast to victory.
Until …
The moment Mike Jones began to talk it was clear I’d underestimated my foe. In the annals of Hood View election speech history, it was Patrick Henry’s “give me liberty or give me death,” Dr. King’s “I have a dream,” and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address all wrapped into one. By the time he was done, I was toast and I knew it. There would be no ruling trinity that year. It was an amazing speech, especially for a seventh grader (although later I came to suspect that perhaps his father, who I had later discovered was the new communications director for the Pacific Northwest region of the Adventist church, did a fair bit of the writing).
I’m sure I lost the election by a landslide though vote totals were never shared. Yet in doing so, I won profoundly that day.
In that pivotal moment, Mike Jones had taught me a life preparation lesson no textbook or teacher ever could. I resolved from that point forward to never enter a meeting or presentation unprepared, to never underestimate the competition, and to always plan AND contingency plan. And for the most part – often to the intense chagrin of family, friends, and coworkers – I haven’t.