Almost there

There are, of course, the notable examples.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian writer and dissenter, was sent to a number of different labor camps from 1946 to 1956 for his crime of writing about Stalin in a less than admirable light and writing about the labor camp system in general.  He was stalked by the KGB for the next 13 years.  They seized most of his manuscripts during this time and discredited him whenever he wanted to publish something. The writer's union in Russia never approved his writings and expelled him in 1969.  He remembers thinking that his works would never see the light of day.  Life was utterly miserable for Solzhenitsyn.

No one knew that in 1970 life would change for Solzhenitsyn.  He was awarded the Nobel prize in literature for copies of his works that had been partially published in the West or had been smuggled out of the Soviet Union.  Influential political figures in the West put immense pressure to release him from his internal exile.  Finally, in 1974 Russia deported the world renowned dissident.

In 1974 on the eve of his release, unaware of any attempts by the West to gain his release, Alexander tells of thinking of trying to escape.  He felt like he would have been killed since he didn't have a real plan.  But, a person he didn't know came to him to talk, thus thwarting his plan.  A day later he was released, and his life totally changed for the better.

Nelson Mandela, the South African president, wasn't always liked.  At age 44 he was arrested for his activities against the British government.  He spent the next 27 years in a tiny prison cell off the coast of South Africa.  Unbeknownst to Mandela the world changed while he was locked away.  Dynamics between blacks and whites shifted.  Finally, immense pressure was brought by the U.S. and other countries to end the Apartheid policies of whites against blacks.  Mandela became the symbol of the end of the Apartheid because of his dissenting activity at age 42.  But, he didn't know any of this as he lay in prison.

He didn't know when he lay his head down to sleep on February 10, 1990, at age 71, he would be released from prison the next day.  Three years later he would receive the Nobel Peace Prize and a year later be elected president of South Africa.  Mandela later would talk of the mind games he played in order to remain alive to get him to February 11th.  On February 10th, he was a miserable, failure of a human being.  A day later his whole life changed.

There are, of course, the unnotable examples, people in every town who have stories of success by waiting for their their lives to be fulfilled or to be changed.  They don't win prizes or have positions of prominence, but they wait.  And one day, without notice, their path radically changes.

The two notable examples are inspiring stories for people who are not in the position they want to be.  No one knows really what will happen in the future.  But, for some, it is the day before their release.  They won't know it until tomorrow.  They lay their heads down tonight as failures.  But the message from the two notable men (and from the unnoted ones) is to have faith.  Release is imminent.  Wait just a tad longer... life will change in the morning.