My Western Sky

This time last week, I was waking up in Wimberley. I was easing into the day with a mimosa while sitting on the front porch of a cute stone cottage. Then I went on a walk on the banks of the Blanco River with one of my besties. Bliss. This is how we roll on a Girls' Trip. When I told people that I was going on a getaway with my Aggie Soul Sistas, Emily and Tracie, they asked, "So what are your plans? What are you going to do?" And the answer was always, "NOTHING. That's the plan." There are no agendas. There are no expectations. When we get together, whether it be in the Hill Country, Houston, Fredericksburg , or Forney, there is rarely a plan (unless it involves a tattoo). We just let life lead us where it may. Because here's the thing--we NEVER get to do that the other 363 days of the year. It's the one time that we allow ourselves to revert back to our college days. We aren't Mom, Chef, Wife, Librarian. We are just Aim, Em, and T....

Something happened at school this week that keeps running on replay in my mind: A freshman boy walked into my office and handed me some stapled pages. "I would like you to read this and give me some feedback on it." This boy is a frequent flyer in the library, and for the sake of anonymity I will refer to him as "John" for the remainder of this post. I worked with his history class on a research project earlier in the year, and he comes in daily at lunch to play Minecraft with his fellow gamer friends. He's my favorite kind of kid--what others see as a typical Band Nerd, but what I see as a bright, unique young man doing his best to not get swallowed up by the conformity of high school. I felt honored that he would hand me this paper because this kid is SMART. We've had quite a number of conversations this year about history, religion, and the various works of John Green--you know, the normal teenage boy talk. Every time I've had a conversation with ...