It was move in day at Savannah College of Art and Design. I was a freshman. I drove down with my parents, and when we parked at my dorm, my new home, I opened the car door and found a quarter on the ground at my feet.

I got out of the car and on my way to the dorm I found 2 other quarters.

My mom said it was extra good luck and told me to keep them, so I did.

I had traveled a good portion of the world, but this was the first time I would be separated from my family. They lived in Richmond, VA and I was going to attend college in Savannah, GA which was between 7-8 hours away. Needless to say, I was homesick before they even left.

My freshman year was difficult for me. My longtime boyfriend cheated on me the whole year, but I was in denial about it until the very end. He would make terrible rules about how we were and weren’t allowed to communicate and spent many days trying hard to be a jerk so that I would break up with him since he didn’t have the guts to do it himself.

I wasn’t used to living with people other than my immediate family, so having a roommate for me was a big challenge in many ways that I won’t get into. Although, the roommates I had 2 years later were immeasurably worse and the reason I ended up living on my own, but again I won’t bore you with details.

And I was extremely homesick.

It wasn’t long before I was so depressed and calling my mom multiple times a day crying, and crying and crying.

There was only one sure thing though. Everywhere I went no matter what I was doing, I was finding coins on the ground. Most often, they were pennies, but I would find all regular American coins. Sometimes I would find a single coin here and there and sometimes I would find them in bulk.

If I was outside, pacing back and forth, talking to Mom on the phone, I would pick up 4 pennies in one setting! If I was at the gas station, it was guaranteed that I would find one or two on the ground.

And I kept every single one of them. I did not spend them. I didn’t let anyone touch the jar of found change. One day my roommate needed change for a dollar and went straight for that jar. I told her to stop and gave her quarters from my wallet instead. I valued those coins as if they were magic.

I also got to the point where I fully expected to find money everywhere I went. My head was always down. One day I found three $1 dollar bills together. Many years later, I got out of my car at a grocery store and found a $20 bill on the ground. No matter where I am even today, I expect to get paid everywhere I go.

One day that year, I was driving back to my dorm. I parked the car, opened the door and on the ground was a nickel. The radio was playing the new hit single by John Mayer  “Waiting on the World to Change.” Suddenly it hit me like a brick in the face! I was finding change! Literally change as in coins, but what I was really finding was change in my life. The bad boyfriend, the annoying roommate, being far from home, all of it was change.

Immediately, I was so grateful for this realization and for all the change in my life. I dumped the boyfriend, and put all my energy in my school work and succeeded with flying colors. I found the love of my life, landed my dream job and have so far been promoted every year that I have worked there.

Pennies became a symbol of success, a symbol of comfort, a symbol of home, since it so happens that my mom’s name is Pennie.

By the end of my freshman year I made over $13 in found change. I still haven’t spent any of the change I have found, and I still pick up every coin I see on the ground.

At the time, I wasn’t aware of the book “The Secret.” I had no idea I was already living it before I even knew it was a world wide phenomenon. My mother passed me the book at the end of the year and it really resonated with me. All this time I was expecting what I wanted and got it!

The Secret is real. It is everything. And I live my life by it every day. Change is good.