Spring 2016…

The spring semester ended at the end of April, and my grades have officially posted (last week… yeah, I’m running late on a lot of things but more on that… later.. ha. yeah). I ended up with straight A’s!

Woot!

Ok, so it was only two classes, but here is where I get to share a bit of a learning lesson. One of those classes should have been a B. My final grade was an 89 point something or other, and sure, there are some of you that would say, “That’s an A if you round up.” But, teachers, especially university ones, aren’t required to round up.

Hey, this is English and not math, after all.

You Are Beheld…

I was recently having a conversation with a friend who is having a difficult go of things. After giving this person a few compliments on how I saw them, the strength they had, their vigorous grasp of hope, and how I was in awe of them for that, they responded by saying,

I don’t see myself as a strong person.

 

The truth is, there are a lot of us who struggle with that. Where others see strength, we see failure. Where others admire us, we despise ourselves. Where others see someone they want to be like, we see someone no one could every (or should ever) cherish.

So, in a brief moment of enlightenment and empathy, I penned the following response to them. If you are going through anything like they are, I hope you find these words helpful.

Copyright…What’s that?

Like any good writer, I follow a few blogs that are about publishing, writing, and other things revolving around the world in which I call my playground. And, probably unlike good writers, I tend to not read them because I am so busy with so much stuff that has nothing to do with writing (I probably should put down the video games once in a while).

23 of 25…

So, this one might fall more into the advice category than anything else. But one of the hardest lessons I have had to learn in the 25 years (minus a day) of my marriage was that every decision I made was going to affect my wife. The little, the big, the stupid, the insane, the crazy… every one of them.

Early on, we established a rule about buying things. A certain dollar amount required both of us to say yes. Anything huge decision, we would walk away from and come back too. No need in having emotions wrapped up in something like that.

Conversation’s That Bite Back…

A few weeks ago, my son came down for a visit. He got his new (to him) car and wanted to come down to show it off say ‘hi’ to his family. Me being the awesome dad that I am (you can stop laughing now), I didn’t change my regularly scheduled Saturday trip to Panera. Yes, I said I didn’t. See, I’m an awesome dad (seriously, you can stop laughing).

So there I was, sitting in Panera, enjoying my coffee, or eating my bagel, or staring blankly at a flashing cursor of my most current work not in production, when he shows up. So I put down the screen to my laptop where I was diligently working away at the next Newbery award winning book trying to write the first word to something, and allowed him to be my excuse for why I did not write anything that day.