Unfinished Thoughts

The Personal Website of William Flake

Generosity

After returning from fall break, I am amazed by the generosity people have towards others.

First, a little background. I had been wanting to bring my car to school, because walking everywhere has severely limited me in some cases (that 3 mile walk to the church to get an Easter basket last spring nearly killed me). The only problem is, the car has been sitting dead on the driveway for years. With the help of my grandfather and a couple of phone calls to my uncle, we replaced the alternator and fixed the windshield wipers, the two most crucial repairs needed.

To get me all set to head back to school, my parents graciously paid for routine maintenance repairs on the car. All in all, I think every drop of fluid in the car may have been replaced, and with good reason, for they had probably nearly crystalized with all the time spent unused. My family was really looking out for me.

But, Of Course…

No amount of preparation in the world could prevent everything from going wrong, especially with a 20 year old car. As I got off the interstate on the last leg of my journey to Clemson, I heard a very quiet pop, and my power steering went out. I laughed a little, knowing that something had to go wrong, so at least it was something as easily fixable as power steering.

…

What didn't cross my mind was that all of the fluids had been checked that morning, so it had not just run out of power steering fluid. I pulled into a shell station about 5 miles from campus to fix the car. I opened the hood to see the drive belt broken and laying across its pulleys. Now, I don't know very much about how cars work, but I knew it was the "drive" belt and that without it, I could probably cause a lot of damage by continuing to "drive."

So, I was stranded, on the outskirts of a small college town in the middle of fall break.

A Family of Angels

Not knowing who else to call, I dialed Brian's number, hoping that he could at the very least pick me up and take me to the dorm. What I received instead was a blessing. It turns out he was at Kate's house, and Kate, her dad, and Brian came to my rescue. They drove me to the auto parts store, helped me try to replace the belt (which ended up not working), helped me park the car in a better lot, took me home, and even gave me a home-cooked dinner.

In the course of a few hours, I went from feeling mature and self-reliant to feeling like a scared kid on his own to feeling loved by a family I had never even met before. I have truly blessed to know such wonderful people. Thanks to everyone who has been so generous towards me recently. You have no idea how much I appreciate it

Comments

Lynn Flake' wrote:

I love you so very much and am glad that you made it back alright. I am also thankful for those who helped you bc though I could have driven out there, there wouldn't have been much I could do to help. I am also glad to see that you are blogging more now. Though I must wonder why you have left out our many adventures since we stared school.....

Dianna Flake wrote:

I've got to admit, I felt responsible for feeling like I made you take the car, and helpless that I couldn't come rescue you and make it all better. But I'm very proud of the way you handled it. And eternally grateful to Brian and Kate and Kate's dad. Thank you Brian and Kate and Kate's dad!

Mom wrote:

A couple of burps- I typed in my full name, but it only posted "Flake". I don't want people to think you've got dual personalities.

Also, did Brittany write "Lynn Flake"?

Mom wrote:

My opinion- I'm not really liking combining blog and twitter. They're different things, and it's not a lot of fun to go rummaging thru one to get to the other.

William Flake wrote:

Mom: Regarding your name, I'm not sure what happened. I fixed it for you.

As for the Twitter, I'm certainly not pleased with the way it's working. Over the next few weeks I'm going to play with it and see if I can make the two work more nicely together. I still think that the idea is good, but this implementation is still pretty bad.

William Flake wrote:

Also, Brittany Lynn, my dear. You're not a Flake yet. Patience. :D

Dianna wrote:

But you can be a flake without being a Flake. And vice versa.

Britt wrote:

Tehehe. I just wanted to see what it would look like. It is rather strange isn't it? :-)

Dad wrote:

Don't you worry about it, sweetheart. You can call yourself "Lynn" anytime you want.

Dad wrote:

BTW, you'll hear it when the power steering fluid starts to run low. Your car will start making that loose belt squeal when you turn the wheel.

Brittany Lynn Kidman wrote:

You need a new blog post dear.

Post Your Thoughts