THE BLANK PAGE

My parents valued education and the opportunities it could provide.  Unfortunately, I failed to see school from their perspective.  The fourth grade was my last enjoyable and productive experience in school.  I did graduate from high school but so did everyone else in my small town.  However, my lack of attention to my studies left me woefully prepared for college.  I attended a small college in southern Utah for one quarter before they suggested a different school might be a better fit.  I tried another college for a quarter before they too determined that my educational experience would need to move forward somewhere else.  At that point I had absolutely no idea of what I wanted to do occupationally.  While serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Alberta, Canada, I had the opportunity to teach some religion classes at the Church Institute located at the University of Lethbridge.  It was there I awakened an unknown passion for teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to students.  From that moment I began to formulate a plan to transform this newfound love into a career.  At the completion of my two year mission I was allowed to enroll at Brigham Young University which, given my academic past, was nothing short of miraculous.  Granted, the admission requirements at BYU in the early 70’s were significantly less rigorous than now, but even with a far lower bar, I was surprised to be accepted.  But accepted I was and I enrolled for the fall semester in 1970.  My intention was to teach public school secondary students during release time seminary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  My motivation to achieve this dream far exceeded any motivation I’d evidenced previously.  In the process of ascertaining what requirements I would need to satisfy in order to achieve my aspirations, I was informed that the process would be highly competitive.  I received no encouragement that I would be successful. There were 350 others candidates who shared the same goal.  I was told that approximately 20 of the original 350 would be hired.  The odds were obviously stacked against me but I refused to be dissuaded.  With the passing of each year more of the original group would slough away, which I counted to my advantage.  As the years passed I edged closer and closer to the top of the remaining group until by the end of my last year I was ranked second among all who remained.  Brother Jensen and Brother Warner were the men who oversaw all of the teaching, training, and evaluating future seminary teachers but they didn’t make the determination regarding who would be hired.  Their role was limited to recommending those most qualified.  That year they took the twenty names to Salt Lake City for review with a General Authority.  I was confident I would be hired and my four years of work and sacrifice would finally bear fruit.  At the time, seminary teachers were required to have a state teaching certificate.  To fill that requirement, I directed the major part of my education toward acquiring that certification, thinking I would only need it as a means to achieve my dream but I was wrong.  One evening I was driving home after student teaching at Lincoln Junior High School and not particularly thinking about much of anything, when an extraordinary thing happened.  I felt the Spirit join me in my little British sports car and in the most peaceful and kind way imaginable, informed me that I wouldn’t be teaching seminary.  Had anyone else conveyed to me that message I would have been devastated.  It was my dream, my passion, the object of everything I had done for the past four years.  But because the Holy Ghost was the one who bore the news, delivered with overwhelming peace and assurance, and conveyed with exemplary graciousness, I knew that it was God’s will and I accepted it unconditionally without a murmur.  The power and peace of that momentous message spoke to my soul and I never once felt betrayed, bitter, or angry at God.  While I didn’t understand why He didn’t want me to teach seminary, I knew that He knew why and that was enough for me.  A few days later, the formal notice that I wouldn’t be hired was given to me by Brother Warner.  He shared that when my name was presented in prayer, it was a unanimous feeling that I was NOT to be hired.  It was something I was prepared for because of my experience with the Spirit in my car.  And though I was at total peace with the decision and the process, it left me with a gaping hole in my occupational plans.  It was too late to shift to another line of study, but I couldn’t think of anything else I wanted to do anyway.  So I relied upon my degree in secondary education and began searching for available jobs teaching social studies in a public school.  It quickly became apparent that I had chosen to teach a subject that didn’t produce a great deal of turnover.  I couldn’t find any employment opportunities within the state.  I realized I would have to expand the parameters of my occupational search.  At the time, BYU had a placement center that helped graduates locate occupational opportunities.  I contacted them and they were very helpful.  They gave me a six page informational form that I had to complete and return.  It had to be typed, on a typewriter.  I dutifully went through the extensive form providing all the needed information.  I double and triple checked it to make certain I had left nothing undone.  It was my intention to attend my morning classes on Monday and then take the form to the placement center.  My wife needed the car that day so she dropped me at school and planned to pick me up at the end of her day.  I was eager to get to the placement center, locate a job, and start my life.  I gave the form to one of the women working the counter.  She looked through it and then surprisingly, looked up at me and said, “Mr. Imlay, you haven’t completed this page.”  I was incredulous.  She showed it to me and sure enough, an entire page was blank.  I knew I had completed that page the night before.  I could remember doing it, but I couldn’t deny that it was now blank.  I had no car that day to go home and complete the form so I explored alternative solutions.  The first one that came to mind was contacting a girl who worked as a secretary in an office in one of the buildings I had often frequented over the years.  We had become passing acquaintances and I knew she would let me use her typewriter.  I headed directly there.  For the first time I could remember, she wasn’t at work.  I moved to plan B.  There were several professors I had come to know in the Religion Department and I thought I could persuade one of them to let me use a typewriter so I headed there.  On my way I passed a building that ran north and south and had entrances on each end.  As I passed the north entrance while walking south I had the distinct impression to enter that building but I ignored it because I was in a hurry to get my form completed and returned.  As I neared the south entrance, the impression to enter the building was stronger, strong enough to grab my attention.  I entered the building through the south doors.  Once inside I asked what I should do.  I felt impressed to turn to my right and walk down the long hall going north.  I had gone about a third of the way when I felt impressed to enter an office on my right and ask a complete stranger if I could use a typewriter, which I did.  The woman showed me a vacant typewriter and said I was welcome to use it.  I sat down and began to complete the blank part of my form.  I had typed for a few minutes when, from somewhere deeper in the office arrangement, I heard a voice calling my name.  I turned to look.  It was an acquaintance of mine.  He asked me what I was doing.  When he learned of my need for a teaching position he exclaimed that he had a good friend that had recently signed a contract to teach social studies at Riverview Jr. High in Murray, Utah but that his circumstances had recently changed and he needed to find someone to take his place in order to get out of his contractual obligations.  He gave me his contact information, I called him, and the rest is history.  I was hired for that job and it lasted for thirty-two years in the Murray School District until I retired and took a job in another district where I worked for an additional thirteen years.  As I ponder all of the circumstances that led me to be in that spot at that exact time, which was not only a blessing to me but to the individual I replaced, I cannot attribute it to chance.  I can clearly see the hand of the Lord as an expression of His tender mercy in my life and the lives of others. I know that He loves each of us dearly and is immensely invested in our success and happiness.