"what you know"

copyright © 2000 by jane chin

I trudged to the elevator, where a man waited by the railing. He saw my pharmaceutical samples bag and said, "I hope you make a lot of money!"

Taken aback, I said, "Not in this managed care situation in California." We entered the elevator. I pressed the second floor button and he pressed the lobby button. He said something about schooling and degrees. The man was making sense, but I for some reason could not comprehend his words.

The door opened and I started to get out of the elevator. The man sensed my blindness and urgently threw out, "You gotta go with what you know!"

I walked to the office door, but decided to ask the man to explain. I ran to the staircase, downstairs to the lobby, and waited for the elevator, hoping I made good time. The elevator opened and strangers came out. The man was no where in sight.

Something had been missing when I carried about my business, doing the job I was doing then. The man told me something I should have known in my heart all along.

I gotta go with what I know.