Early Lessons: Walking A Mile in the Shoes of Pat Padgett

Nineteen eighty-five was an eventful year. Coca-Cola introduced “New Coke” — this was an awful idea, they reversed course within three months, Michael Jordan was named “Rookie of the Year,” Nintendo released their NES gaming system in the US market and an 18 year old Jeffrey Padgett stood in a missionary training facility in Provo, Utah. 

I would stay there for three weeks before leaving for my Tennessee Nashville Mission. I remember my time at that training center well.

It was an important moment for me because it was the moment I ventured away from the protective watch of my parents and into the great unknown. At the orientation there was this specific moment when the individual who presided over the gathering pointed to two doors, one on his left that my parents would use to leave and one on his right that I would walk through. He said, “say your goodbyes, this is the last moment you will see your parents for the next two years.”

And so it was. 

I walked through that 4 x 7 opening to the right of that man and I didn’t see my parents again for two years. That experience changes a person, that experience changed me. 

I remember that old saying, “walk a mile in my shoes.” One of the ways we honor our parents is taking all the lessons they’ve taught us and then applying them. 

In these moments, Pat Padgett wasn’t with me. I couldn’t ask him a question, he couldn’t show me how I was supposed to do some task and he couldn’t correct me when I made some foolish mistake. But, in another way he was with me. For all of my life up till that moment Pat Padgett had been preparing me for this moment, his words, his advice and his example were now my tools and my schooling for life. 

Over the course of those two years at the Tennessee Nashville Mission I changed, I entered my mission as Jeffrey the boy and I returned as Jeffrey the man. 

Those two years were hard years in some ways, but they were also good years, in fact, two of the most fulfilling years of my life. While on the ground I learned practical lessons for life, lessons Pat Padgett spent years teaching, lessons that were cemented while trying to figure out how to manage my own life and deal with others, some generous, some not-so-generous. 

I learned to do without, being a student missionary meant I took a practical vow of poverty. I learned leadership skills. Over the course of those years I was responsible for training others and being a district leader, making decisions and guiding my peers. I also learned how to deal with rejection — an invaluable lesson I would never trade. All of these lessons prepared me for life and ultimately running my own business. 

When Pat Padgett was 18 he had his own challenges. He had to make tough decisions and then eventually “make it on his own.” And he did. Young Pat Padgett became the older Pat Padgett the Carpet Cleaner. When I was 18 I had to face my own challenges, make my own tough decisions and then eventually, also, “make it on my own.” In other words, I had to learn to “walk a mile in Pat Padgett’s shoes” — I’m better for it.