the year my jewish roommates got me a christmas tree

I guess I had a special kind of hopeful.

I lost a watch my mom gave me for my 16th birthday. It was one of several times pieces that she gives on milestones. One for my first day of school and another one for graduating college.

My sweet sixteen watch was more of a bangle/bracelet style. Fun but a bit fussy about staying on my wrist. So when I lost it at the final subway stop in a Boston suburb that also connected to a bus depot with buses leaving for New York City, everyone thought it was gone for good. I had lost it several times before and it found its way back to me; usually within moments and the longest within hours.

JNET: “C, can you please make a sign for me? Have it say Sweet Sixteen Gold watch lost. Please return and put our phone number on the paper. Put the sign up in the subway and bus depot station.”

C: “Why? I doubt you will see it again.”

JNET: “People return things when they know where to find it’s owner.”

C: “Okay. But don’t have your hopes too high.”

It was September. School had just started and it was my first year teaching. Life was feeling bearish. The school I was teaching at only needed / had a budget for a music teacher twice a week. I had a handful of private students. Luckily, Dillion House gave me freedom to come work at admissions whenever I had free time. Times felt lean but I enjoyed teaching those two days and spent the rest on the gorgeous Harvard University campus.

September marched onto October.

ABC: “Any update on your watch?”

JNET: “Not yet.”

As the leaves turned color, I visited the desk at the bus depot to check in regularly as part of my commute into the city. They humored my visits and weren’t encouraging. The ladies I worked with on campus thought my positive outlook was from years of sunny California exposure. Weeks turned into months. Snow started to cover the ground.

Finally, it was the end of November and I was preparing to visit family in New Jersey when the phone call came.

?: “Hi. I have your watch. Can you be at the bus station within 10 minutes? I’m putting your watch in an envelope and want to make sure you can pick it up right away.”

JNET: “WOW! Thank you. I live nearby and can run over right away. Thank you!”

The mystery person wasn’t at the bus station when I arrived. But I loved the look on the face of the desk person when I approached them and said they had something for me. In a blank, unmarked enveloped, the mystery person put my watch with no note. I was thrilled to be reunited with my watch and my faith in humanity was confirmed. I was finally able to take my signs down after three months.

Everyone was gob smacked and happy for me. Despite the uncertainty, I had to hold fiercely to my hope in people. What would my experience of my world be if I didn’t believe good existed? I believe in God and I believe in goodness. And perhaps this is the same type of faith I hold in crypto and the possibility of it changing the world for better. I don’t think my positive outlook comes from time under the sun at the beach and my Jewish roommates’ gift of a Christmas tree that year was the sweetest gesture to celebrate faith.

We come from different paths but we all hope for similar things; community, connection, peace and good will.

Merry Christmas and here’s to a happier world with different kinds of hopeful.

JNET

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