The Year That God Tried to Buy Me A Large Pizza With Everything

You know me, but you may not know that I'm the 6th of 7th children. Coming from such a large family, I knew that my parents couldn't afford to send me to college. However, with the help of a very kind teacher and the grace of God, I was awarded a four year scholarship to Agnes Scott College, a four year liberal arts women's college in Decatur, Georgia.



With a full ride, I thought I had it made! So in the fall of 1973, off I went to Decatur, armed with a newly purchased trunk from K-Mart, my hard sided hot pink (I was just beginning my fashionista phase) Samsonite suitcase and the bible that my mom insisted that I take with me and place on the nightstand near my bed.



After I got settled in, one reality hit me pretty quickly. A full scholarship cover room and board, but it did NOT cover a midnight pizza run. Week after week, I watched the girls on the floor in my dorm order pizza whenever they got good and ready. They always seemed to have a large pizza with everything. I didn't have any money, so I made it through the nights and weekends with what seemed like hundreds of packages of ramen noodles and can after miserable can of vienna sausages and what had to be THOUSANDS of sleeves of (premium!) saltine crackers.



I would talk to my mom often and week after week, she'd ask "Michelle, are you reading your bible" and week after week, I'd lie and say "Yes, mama.". The fact was that the bible was in the very same place that she'd left it - on the night stand beside my bed. You see, my sould wasn't hungry, but my stomach was, so I settled for noodles, sausages and saltines.



Sure, I was invited to share a slice of pizza with the girls who lived on my floor, but I was never able to take the leftovers back to my room or certainly not take the last slice. After all, I had not paid one dime.



The end of the school year came and I went to pack my bible to move to another dorm. As I picked up the bible, time stood still as a precious $20 bill floated in what seemed like slow motion from the bible to the floor. My mom had put it there and I only then realized that all year long, God had been trying to buy me a large pizza with everything.



Now, I read my bible with much more regularity and the funny thing is that I've found something much more satisfying, even better than a large pizza with everything.