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A blue angel saved me

By LEE WILLIAMS

They say if you have a bad experience, you will tell three people. But if you have a good experience, you will only tell one person.

Well, not me. I want to tell the world about the man with the blue uniform and a silver badge who stole my heart. His name is Neal.

When I met Neal, I had reached rock bottom professionally.

A couple of weeks prior, I had quit my job at The Griffin Daily News in August, moved out of my apartment, and was staying with my former boss, who was gracious enough to let me crash on her couch in her spare room with my two kitties, Sweet Pea and Sasha. In other words, I was homeless and had nowhere to turn.

I had hoped this bold move would give me plenty of time to focus on landing the perfect job at a major metro newspaper. As an award-winning journalist, I just knew it wouldn’t be long before I found something. But, boy, was I wrong.

Day after day, I would scan the journalism job Web sites for leads. I would send dozens of resumes, e-mail and hardcopy, make follow-up calls, do phone interviews, and even went on two face-to-face interviews, and still nothing.

As days turned to weeks, I started to panic. Then, along came Neal.

I met Neal outside of a club one night while hanging out with friends. He was providing security for a popular hotspot and something about him drew me.

I floated over to his white Mazda and struck up a conversation. One look at his brown eyes, and warm smile and I was goo. I had been bitten by the love bug.

We exchanged telephone numbers and continued to correspond over the phone for roughly two months. I told Neal about my job hunting woes. He knew that I was desperate, but he never mentioned it.

My confidence was shattered after receiving constant rejection day after day. I had given up on finding a job in the journalism field, a field I spent the better part of my life and $37,000 trying to pursue, and turned my attention to finding a job. Any job.

I tried getting a job as a substitute teacher, 911 dispatcher, park ranger, social worker and even a cocktail waitress at the Cherokee Town & Country Club in Buckhead. Nothing.

One day, I started telling him about my days as a public safety reporter at GDN. He heard the enthusiasm in my voice and told me that that is the job that I needed to be looking for. At that moment, everything clicked.

In a blink of an eye, something that seemed so unattainable was within my reach again. He took me on a ride-along one night through Atlanta, which caused my desire for covering the law enforcement beat to grow stronger

Shortly, afterwards I landed a job at The Citizen and I was ecstatic. Neal was happy, too.

Neal’s encouragement and declarative statement gave me the strength to gather all of my courage and try again. He encouraged me not to abandon my dreams and for that I will always be grateful.

As time grew on, so did my relationship with Neal. We became quite enamored with each other. I love many things about him: his cool demeanor, his intellectual side, his charisma, and his diverse taste in music.

But, what I love the most is he never judged me for being unemployed or camping out with friends, and he applauded me on keeping an upbeat attitude despite it all. If he only knew how many times I decided to throw my own pity party.

Living off the generosity of others with an uncertain future was indeed the most unsettling experience for me. But if that’s what it took for my one true love, Neal, and I to find our way to each other, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

The moral of the story is if you know someone who did something that means a lot to you, let them know. Don’t keep them in suspense. The opportunity to share it with them might only come around once.