My Daughter the Cutco Girl

So who was this mystery Vector Marketing? We started looking more into the company and found out that we actually were quite aware of their products! Little did we know, one of our church friends had worked for the same company five years before and had sold us our knives that sat on our kitchen counter. Then the thought struck me: Oh my gosh! My daughter is going to be going door to door to sell knives! Naturally I was very concerned about this and my protective maternal instincts kicked in; but she assured me that it was perfectly safe and that there was a system of talking with the people that she knew first and asking them for recommendations.

Several months had passed with Sarah working at Vector Marketing and she was working hard, so hard that she was the top of her training class and one of the top representatives in the Bay Area! Because of her success thus far, her boss had asked her to speak on her success at a conference.

We were so proud and honored that they had asked our daughter, Sarah to do such a big thing. Though she was nervous about this big task ahead of her, she was willing and honored to do it. Finally, the day of the company conference came, and I watched as my daughter got ready in her professional business attire and prepared herself for this exciting day. She had done very well in the past two weeks sales competition with the company, but it didn’t matter how well she had done, I knew all she was thinking about was her speech she was to give at the conference to over 1,000 people! 

We followed her out the door, kissed her on the cheek and assured her we would be there for her speech in a couple of hours. It finally came time for her to give her speech, and as we watched our beautiful daughter walk up on stage and speak like a professional to such a big audience, we couldn’t help but feel immensely proud of all that she had done and how she had changed the predicament of the crash in her life journey's several months before into such an amazing accomplishment!

When she concluded her speech, she was given a standing ovation from the entire room as she thanked the crowd and walked down the steps of the stage with a beaming smile on her face. She walked to the back of the Conference hall where we were standing with tears in our eyes and it is then that she whispered to us “This is what I want to do mom and dad, this is what I want to do with my life! Inspire others, Business, marketing, it all makes sense and feels so natural. I know that this is where God is calling me at this point in time, and I am excited that I have been able to find it!”

The Phone Call That Changed It All

It was around the first of May when we got the call, and I remember it like it was yesterday. Sarah had gone in for her end of the year meeting with her soccer coach at Westmont, knowing that she would either be continuing with the team next year, or that she would be let go.  When I heard the sobs on the other end of the phone, I knew it was the latter of those options. This news left her questioning all the work she had put into this team over the past year, her being at that school for the next year, questioning whether she should stay in the Kinesiology field as her major and what the next step in life would be for her. As parents we tried to comfort her the best we could, being so far away, and let her know that everything would be all right and that God ultimately had a plan for her through all of this.

That summer was a summer of change for Sarah, not only a change of moving back home and having to register for classes at the local community college the following fall, but a change of not playing college soccer, not going back to her life guarding job that she had had for the past three years, and a change from the normal routine she normally encountered over the summer. We tried our best to encouraged her to get out there, try new things, look for new jobs, and to move on past this moment in life. Though it was difficult and painful for her at first, she was able to set out and accomplish these things.

I remember Sarah coming home one day with a lengthy list of businesses that she was trying to apply for, her folder filled to the brim with completed job applications to turn into different businesses around town, and her patiently waiting for a response from a few of the managers she had spoken with. Finally, she got her first call back from a company for an interview. I asked her questions about the particular position and what she would be doing, but she did not seem to know the exact details. Being the protective mother that I am I was very wary of letting my daughter go off to an interview that she did not know much about, even with her being 19 years old she was still my little girl; but I trusted her. I let her borrow my best blouse for her interview and saw her off. My last words to her out the door were: “Don’t make any decisions today on the position. Let us think about what all they have to offer and then go from there.” Her interview lasted at least 2 hours and when she came home, she was bubbling with an excitement I had only seen on her face a few times throughout her 19 years. "I got the job,” she proclaimed as she ran inside the house, "and I accepted their offer!" I was so excited for her, but had she not listened to a word I said? She was now able to tell me all about this new company she would be working for: Vector Marketing. The company was a type of sales company that sold Cutco Cutlery. 

Standing on The Threshold of Adulthood

"RING RING". The phone buzzed as my husband was in the kitchen making dinner and I was in the yard pulling weeds. Ken checked the caller ID and saw that it was from our daughter, Sarah, and yelled out to me, “HONEY, Sarah is on the phone” as he picked up the receiver and pushed talk. As I walked into the kitchen with dirty hands, I could hear muffled sobs over the speakerphone on the other end of the line and a faint voice that I did not recognize as my daughters. It was hard hearing my sweet daughter in such a weak state from 300 miles away and me not being able to wrap my arms around her and tell her it was all right. "What's wrong honey?" I tried to etch out of my throat, holding back my sobs now; and that's when it all started, that's when everything changed.

As her mother, I had encouraged Sarah to start looking at colleges at an early age. Starting when Sarah was a freshman in high school or even earlier, we would take weekend family trips to different places in California, enjoying the sights, but also trying to open our daughter’s eyes to new places and help her figure out where she wanted to go once the time for college applications came around. Ken and I had prayed about several different opportunities that had presented themselves through Sarah’s acceptance letters back from colleges.

After much research, talking to precious alumni, and talking with the soccer coach who had offered Sarah a place on their team, Sarah finally decided to choose a private school, Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. Though at the time it seemed like it was the perfect fit (other than the price tag that came along with it) we slowly realized as a family throughout her first year there that God was making it evident that He had other plans for Sarah. 

Sarah was on the Westmont Women's Soccer team her freshman year, and we couldn’t have been more proud of her for being chosen to play for a college team! We attended as many games as we could (which was not many as we lived 300 miles away) and cheered for her the few times she got to go in, but we could easily see that it was the hardest team she had ever been on before.  I remember her calling me one day and telling me of types of workouts they had done that particular week, where she felt as if she were going to pass out after or just wanted to lay in her bed because her body hurt so bad; but she toughed it out and made the most of it. She didn't get much playing time, but she worked her butt off to try and earn her spot on the field. Not long after that is when we got the call, the call that changed it all.