While leaning on the elevator walls, waiting for my floor to meet again with the elevator’s doors, I thought about what I was doing awake at 12:35 on a Tuesday night.

When I reached the eleventh floor, instead of walking onto my floor’s aging carpet, I stood still and thought. Something was wrong. I hit the first floor button on the glossy control panel and the elevator dropped down to say hello to the hotel’s lobby. In my late night actions I realized I forgot my key card and had go to the front desk for another.

After receiving a shiny new Sheraton key card I stepped back into the hotel, and erroneously pressed the ninth floor button on the elevator’s now legendary glossy control panel. Realizing my mistake, I pushed the eleventh floor button, and paused while I felt the wooden structure rise in altitude.

I thought about what I was doing awake at 12:42 on a Tuesday night.

When the elevator’s doors opened, I stepped out into a mystery land. I was now on the ninth floor, away from my comfort zone and in a place where my own personal bed would never be found. Rushing back to the elevator area, I saw the doors shut and slide away. I lost my chance of getting back to my floor. After waiting a few minutes, another elevator came to bring me to the eleventh floor.

After stepping inside and pressing a different car’s glossy control panel for my own floor, I looked down and saw a fortune from a fortune cookie.

The first line of the rectangular white paper read “Watch,” while the line beneath contained the Chinese verbiage for pronunciation. I stood still and thought. bWas I being watched? Earlier in the night I watched Bourne Ultimatum, was I being watched like Bourne? Or, was it life’s way of saying I should watch which buttons I hit on the elevator’s glossy control panel.

When I reached the eleventh floor I picked up the fortune and stepped into the lobby. The other side of the fortune surprised me.

“A dream you have will come true.”

Whether its fate or God or just silly luck, any message like this under these circumstances can surprise anyone, even those tired at 12:42 on a Tuesday night.

By forgetting my key card, and stepping out on the wrong floor, I’d found confirmation of my dreams. At that moment I watched myself walk into my hotel room and grinned at the future.