My head was pounding like a bass drum, my heart racing to the roar of a super-sonic plane.  Old Mr. Smith’s dog was breathing at my heels like an angry lawnmower gone wild.  Faster than lightening, I jumped on the wire mesh fence!   But, my pants, hanging below my waist, got caught in the wire…What a mess!

Boom, boom, boom! …the sound of my door.  I suddenly woke up to my mom banging on my door,  “Donald, get up now and get ready for school!”  The sound was reverberating in my head, the echo bouncing on the walls of my brain.  The clock on the nightstand said 6:30 a.m.  I had only gotten two hours of sleep.  Talking on the phone until 12:00, watching a movie until 2:00 a.m. and then playing video games until 4:30 in the morning had robbed my sleep.   What a mess!

Slowly, I rolled out of bed and fell on my game controllers and a pile of shoes and clothes stacked up from last week and the weeks before that.  The floor was no where in sight.  One of the controller handles stuck me right in the side.  “Ouch!” , I yelled.   It hurt so badly… What a mess!

”Boom, Boom, Boom!”, pounding on the door.    I jumped and held my eyes, wincing at the echoing pain as it hit the corner of the nightstand.  “Oooo”, I moaned, rolling over on the floor.  “Are you up?”, my mother yelled.  “You only have 40 minutes to get ready and catch the bus to school.  I’ve got to get to work now!  Do you hear me, Donald?…Donald!”    “Yes, mom, I’m up, I’m up, I’ll be on time”, was my reply in pain.   What a mess!

My mom had just started a new job and couldn’t drive me to school anymore.  She didn’t know it then, but I had yet to be on time, after promising her that I would not be late to school.    That wasn’t all.   I was failing math, my first hour class.   I carefully crawled on the floor as if it had hidden mines ready to explode.  Carefully maneuvering thought the debris on the floor, I finally reached the wall.   I managed to stand up and turn on the light.   What a mess!

The closet door mirror revealed a red blot of blood on my forehead from ramming the nightstand.   Dirty wrinkled clothes from the day before, no months before, and  videogames, clothes, shoes, potato chip wrappers, pop cans, you name it peppered the room.  What a mess!

Getting up and getting to the bathroom was no easy task, but I made it and managed to take off my clothes that I had slept in.  I had to wash up- no time to shower.  Finding something to wear was even more difficult.   What a mess!

By the time I managed to get to the kitchen.  It was already 7:00 a.m.  There was no time to eat anything, so I grabbed my book bag and headed out the door.   My stomach was growling for something to eat.  What a mess!

I ran down the street and as I was turning the corner, I saw the blue and white school bus  in sight.  How could that be?  It was only 7:05!  The bus was early.  I started running like I was in a marathon, the wind at my back, but by the time I reached the bus mid-way, the  bus  pulled off.   I began to run full throttle, yelling for it to stop.  But, to my dismay, the bus kept going.  I was going to be late again!   What a mess!

My head hung in despair.  I could have made it!  If only the bus driver had done his job and stuck to the schedule he was paid to keep!  I was angry!  The bus wasn’t to arrive until 7:10!  It was the bus driver’s fault that I was late!  I had tried so hard!

But, something in my brain told me that I was a liar and that I hadn’t tried hard at all.   Now I had to walk two blocks to the city bus stop.  While walking, I got a chance to think about what I had done in the past 12 hours.  It dawned on me that starting to get to school on time at 6:30 this morning, was too late.  I thought about how my mom would feel when she found out that I had let her down.  I had let myself down too, because the basketball coach at school, Mr. Douglas said that I had to maintain a 2.8 grade average in order to stay on the track team.   A failing grade in math would nix that.  I felt like I had been run over by an 18 wheeler.  What a mess!

As I sat down on the bus stop bench, I lay my head down and wanted to cry.   How did I get in such a mess?   I must have sat for a good two minutes when a calm came over me and I started to pray to God for help.  It wasn’t much of a prayer.  I kept repeating, “God help me – please help me.”  I needed help badly.   Out of the blue, I opened my eyes, took out a tablet and started writing down what I was going to do.

Get to school on time and pass my math class, turn in all of my homework so I could stay on the basketball team and not let my mother down.

 How hard is that?   Just then, Carla, an all ‘A’ student, walked up to the bus stop.  I looked up and exclaimed, “You’re late too?”  She said, “Yes, my brother woke up with a high temperature this morning, and I had to stay at home until my mom came home from her night shift.”  She paused as she looked at my tablet,   “Are you finishing up some homework?”   “Naw”, I said, “just writing down some stuff I need to do”.  At that point I filled her in on all the happenings that morning.  I don’t even know why I even shared my troubles with her.  I just did.

“Well, she said, that is a good start.  If I can do it, I know you can do it, too.   I had trouble getting to school too, until I started getting organized.   My dad left when my younger brother, Charles was two years old and I had to start doing more around the house and helping my mom.”   She works midnights.  So, I have to get my little brother up, help him get ready for school, fix breakfast and take him to school each morning.”  I asked,  “You do that every morning?”   “Yep, every morning,”  she answered.    “It seemed as though the more I had to do, the more I got done and the more organized I was, especially since I was responsible for my baby brother.  I found out when things around me were in order, even my thinking was clearer.  My grades improved and I felt better all over.”

Suddenly, an elderly woman with lots of bags came to the stop.    I stood up and gave her my seat, even though I was drained and exhausted.   She thanked me.

When I got to school, I was dragging all day long and fell asleep in my history class.   I dreamed about the preacher’s sermon I heard Sunday.    My mom insisted that I go to church every Sunday.  It was such a drag.  The pastor that Sunday morning said that many young people didn’t know how good they had it.   He said we complain about where we live and what’s for dinner and how school is so boring.   He said if we traded places one day with someone overseas, we would see things a lot differently.

After getting home from school, I took the phone off the hook and began cleaning my room.  It took three hours to get it together.  I was so beyond tired, but the nap during History class had helped me.  I laid out my clothes for the next day and then stretched out on the bed to get some rest.

I woke up to my mom’s gentle shake.  “Donald, are you okay?  Dinner’s ready.  Boy this room looks great!  I’ve never seen it so clean and neat.”    I rubbed my eyes and reached up to give her a hug.  I was so tired, that I didn’t hear her come in the room.  “I love you mom”, I said.  She cupped my head into the palms of her hands and kissed me on the forehead.   “I love you with all my heart”, she said, lovingly into my eyes.  “God blessed me with a wonderful son!”  After she left the room, I thought about how hard she worked at keeping a roof over our heads.  She was determined to make it after my dad died in a car accident when I was just a toddler.

During dinner, I reluctantly showed my mom the failing grade on my progress report and the letter from my coach saying that I could not play until my grades improved.  She said nothing as she sighed, closed her eyes and slumped back in her chair.    “I’m going to do better, Mom, I promise”, I said.  “I hope so Donald”, she replied.    “I can’t go to school for you.   You have to do that yourself.”  It pained me to see the disappointment on her face.  She paused and then said solemnly, ”You go on upstairs and get your homework done.  I’ll take care of the dishes.”

I hung my head as I climbed the stairs to my room.   I looked around my room.  First, I took my television out of my room and set it on a table in the hall.  Then I took the joysticks and my games and put them in the den.  I plugged my phone up to the charger in the hall by the front door.  As I sat down to do some homework, I put my head down on the table and prayed to God.

“Thank you God for listening to my prayer and helping me today.  This is Donald again, Mamie’s son.  I need you, Lord to help me.   I’ve got a lot of stuff to straighten out and I need you now more than ever.  Show me the way and show me how to do this right.   If I get off task, get me back on.  Thank you for helping me today and don’t leave me.  This is Donald, signing out for now.”  It wasn’t the greatest prayer, but if God heard me the first time with the little I said earlier, I’m sure he heard me this time.

I smiled and heaved a sigh of relief as I sat down to my clean desk.  I knew I was going to be okay.  I felt so much better.  Everything was neat and in place.   My clothes were laid out for the next day.   Carla was right.  Your thinking is clearer when things around you are in order.  It felt good not to be in such a messy state.   Now I can focus on cleaning up my other mess.   I can do this!