Karla's Kolumn: Expect the unexpected

This weekend, 88 seniors from Worland and eight from Ten Sleep will graduate. This month and next students from across the country in high schools and colleges will be saying goodbye to one journey and hello to their next journey and the best advice for them I can give is to expect the unexpected.

Jeremiah 29:11 says in part, “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord.

God, the omniscient King of Kings, can make plans because he knows the past, present and future.

We fickle, no where near all-knowing, humans, know only our past and our present so when we make plans, then we absolutely must expect the unexpected.

I look back on my life and if there was a plan to bring me to where I am at this moment writing this well then it had to be God’s plan because there have been many unexpected moments along the way.

An unexpected surprise…

I got my first job out of college not by great planning on my part but more from sheer good luck. I had not started looking for a job yet in the early part of 1990. I was focused on finishing my senior year and getting my degree. Out of the blue I get a call from the publisher of the Lovell Chronicle asking if I would be interested in applying.

So I scrambled to complete my resume and at the same time I looked at journalism jobs in Wyoming. Being Wyoming born and bred, well, Wyoming was my home and Wyoming was where I wanted to stay. There were three jobs. I wanted to see how the Lovell job would play out first.

I got the job and my “plan” was to work there three years and then look to move on to bigger and better newspapers. That was my plan and in three years I began looking and interviewed for a job in Torrington. It was bigger, but I realized the job would not be better than what I already had at the Chronicle.

Another unexpected surprise …

It was not in my plans to move to Laramie after 16 years in Lovell. I had gotten married after nine years there. (It was also unexpected when my future husband called to ask me out, but that’s a story for another time. This year we celebrate 22 years of marriage.)

In Laramie after just over two years we were not looking to move until a call came about an editor position in Basin.

And another unexpected surprise …

Fast forward another six years and while I was looking for different employment my plan was not the Northern Wyoming News. When I learned of the editor position opening I initially told myself I was not interested but a chance meeting with then publisher Lee Lockhart brought another unexpected surprise and in about a week we were getting ready to move to Worland.

If you had told me in 1990 upon my graduation I would be in the Northern Wyoming News office as its editor and manager I would have told you that’s not in the plans.

But I am here and I would not want to be anywhere else.

Throughout this journey called life, I have come to expect the unexpected, and to realize that sometimes the unexpected can bring us our greatest joy.

Good luck and God bless you in your next great adventure.