In 1976, I was twelve years old. I went with a group from my school on a trip to Washington, D.C. to celebrate the bicentennial. We only spent two days in the city and, as you can imagine, the entire trip was a fast paced frenzy trying to see everything time allowed.

We were at the Capitol Building, and there were literally hundreds of students in the area under the dome. They had come from all over the country to experience this tour. At one point, I had to go to the restroom and I was the last person in quite a long line. When I finally came out, where there had been hundreds of students, there was no one!

I didn't know what to do. I was very frightened and didn't know where I should go. However, I took some comfort in the knowledge that our group was to meet back there in two hours. I got on an elevator and wandered through areas of the building where I had no business. This became obvious from the looks I got from people in the offices I passed.

So I decided to go out and sit on the steps of the Capitol until, hopefully, I saw someone from our group. As I left the building, there, coming up the steps, was a teacher from my school who wasn't even with our group! He just "happened" to be in D.C. at the same time we were there, because he was Mississippi's Educator of the Year. He stayed with me until my group came back, and there has never been a happier twelve-year-old girl. I know God was looking out for me.

Anonymous
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