My job, my profession, and my career weave through my personal life, my travel, and my writing. Whether getting my education, traveling to my next place of employment, or turning the page to the next chapter of my life, reflecting on my professional experience cannot be measured in the money earned or the title given.
Work should never be easy, nor was it.
Please note: The travel described here occurred in the past. Today, I do not recommend that anyone who is, or may possibly be, pregnant travel to this state. A miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy cannot be safely treated under this state’s current laws. Please care for yourself and travel to places where your life and health are valued. I Didn’t Know I recently put pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard) to recall some of the highlights from my earliest college years (see What I Remember When I Try To Forget – Part 1 from July 2021), and in hindsight, I realize I possessed little practical knowledge at the age of nineteen. I didn’t know that college wasn’t the celebrated event that the Brat Pack gallantly left behind in St. Elmo’s Fire, I didn’t know that college classes often feel like a repeat of high school but with superfluous reading, and I didn’t know that saying, “No,” to professional requests was a viable option (see Beautiful and Tasty from March 2021). By the time I figured out these realities, I’d already left college. Learning what is expected, versus what I aspire for myself certainly didn’t happen overnight. In fact, I tolerated quite a bit of nonsense and clutter throughout the experiences that happened from the time I graduated high school until I stumbled upon the path that turned out to be where adulthood would take me. Often the years in between being a teenager and becoming a mom felt far more like life was bumping into me than I was strategically navigating, or sometimes evading, the assault of metaphorical playground balls being bounced, and occasionally hurled, at me by life. I never enjoyed dodgeball as a child, and I certainly didn’t need it as a basis for a collegiate experience. Writing, Yes – Interviewing, No Of all the lessons I learned during those first three semesters of college, besides the fact that CLEP should be an integral part of the college experience, I didn’t know that journalism would not be my life’s pursuit. Of course, here I am more than thirty years later still writing, both personally and professionally, but during those early college years, I desperately needed to have a closer relationship with my muse and my internal navigational system. My work-study program required me to dabble in writing and editing, but also interviewing, a skill that in hindsight I didn’t adequately grasp. The moment of truth, exhibited by the question-and-answer session with a university alumnus, required me to sacrifice part of an already unappealing Thanksgiving break (see Conan the Hoosier from February 2012). I didn’t know back then that my time away from school could be entirely mine. While spending time with my extended family in Cincinnati over the turkey-day holiday, I met with Emerson Quillin and failed to absorb the true flavor of the creative juices that flowed through his life. I likely asked mundane, uninteresting queries that all these years later don’t matter for shit. Once back at school I wrote the token article, published in the school newsletter or magazine, and I limped through the remaining semesters until I found the route to my real life – the one where I make the choices about what I read, how I spend my holidays, and when I would be introduced to my muse. Only a handful of lessons from college stuck, but listen, Honey, always say, “No,” whenever it suits you.
- State Parking
- Proceeding Onward – Part 47
- Wheels Down
- The Secrets We Keep – Part 46
- Wheels Up
- The Secrets We Keep – Part 45
- The Secrets We Keep – Part 44
- The Secrets We Keep – Part 43
- Epicboy
- The Secrets We Keep – Part 42
- 100 Years To The Day
- The Secrets We Keep – Part 41
- This Majestically Grand Scenery
- The Secrets We Keep – Part 40
- Elvis Has Left The Campground
- No Room In My World
- Heavy Duty – Part 39
- Baseball Hall Of Fame – Part 3
- Heavy Duty – Part 38
- Baseball Hall Of Fame – Part 2
- Heavy Duty – Part 37
- Baseball Hall Of Fame – Part 1
- Heavy Duty – Part 36
- In The Shadow Of Giants… And Yankees, And Cubs, And Rays
- The Last Florida Odyssey – Part 3
- Falling Forward – Part 35
- The Last Florida Odyssey – Part 2
- Falling Forward – Part 34
- The Last Florida Odyssey – Part 1
- Falling Forward – Part 33
- The Long Road To Florida
- Falling Forward – Part 32
- Thunder Rolls
- Falling Forward – Part 31
- Fermented Filigree
- Falling Forward – Part 30
- Aircraft And Spacecraft
- Air And Space
- Falling Forward – Part 29
- Standing In The Hammock
- Closing The Loop – Part 28
- On The Other Side Of The Hidden Map
- Closing The Loop – Part 27
- Closing The Loop – Part 26
- A First And Last Road Trip
- Closing The Loop – Part 25
- The Clarity Of Nature
- On My Own – Part 24
- On My Own – Part 23
- Dams – Part 2
- Dams – Part 1
- Dam, Girl!
- On My Own – Part 22
- Faithfully Yours
- On My Own – Part 21
- M-I-C… I See You Ate My Shoe
- Swimming Back
- On My Own – Part 20
- Driving With Dogs
- Turn Signals
- Baggage – Part 19
- Gone Missing
- Baggage – Part 18
- Just This Little Bridge
- Baggage – Part 17
- The First Time I Went To Canada
- Baggage – Part 16
- Glacier Peak
- Holding Hands
- Baggage – Part 15
- On The Job – Part 14
- On The Job – Part 13
- On The Job – Part 12
- On The Job – Part 11
- The Wrong Way To Waldorf
- On The Job – Part 10
- Public Lands Day – Yellowstone Edition
- On The Job – Part 9
- Photo Op
- The Bay Of Green
- On The Job – Part 8
- Learning To Fly
- No Secrets Here – Part 7
- From Here To There – Part 2
- From Here To There – Part 1
- Laundry
- No Secrets Here – Part 6
- Anchors Away – Part 2
- Anchors Away – Part 1
- No Secrets Here – Part 5
- Yearbooks
- No Secrets Here – Part 4
- Only A Bench
- No Secrets Here – Part 3
- Breaking In
- Unwanted Travel
- No Secrets Here – Part 2
- All That Glitters
- Golden Mill
- No Secrets Here – Part 1
- Little Pomp, Or Pompey
- And Did You See That?
- Oddities
- Plane Train Boat Truck Car
- The Rainbow State
- Sound. Color. Hawai’i.
- Did You See That?
- Tunneling Through
- The Light At The End Of The Wind River Tunnel
- Stennis Space Center
- Fee-Free Fun – Part 2
- Karma With Clarified Butter
- Fee-Free Fun – Part 1
- No Mo’ NOLA
- Blue Screen Of Death
- Above The Bridge
- Back Where I Don’t Belong
- Foreground Flowers – Part 2
- Hills And Mountains
- Christmas On The Move
- Foreground Flowers – Part 1
- Foreground Flower
- Mousters Degree
- Random Rental Cars
- Lessons From A Rental Car
- When I Grow Up
- I Knew I Should Have Made That Left Turn
- Roasted Jalapeño Blueberry Porter
- The Lights on South Mountain
- Alone Journey
- Traveling Alone
- Not Area 51
- My Visit To The National Archives at College Park
- The Other National Archives
- Twelve Days And Ten Years
- Swallows
- Still Kicking
- I’ll Be Back
- Death Valley National Park
- Every Kind Of Desert
- Ball Chairs
- Opening Day And The Best. Night. Ever.
- Listen, Honey
- Antioxidants: Wine and Chocolate
- Hiking In
- This Is The Worst Trip I’ve Ever Been On
- The Appalachian Trail – Part 2
- The Appalachian Trail – Part 1
- Hiking (Parts Of) The Appalachian Trail
- Everglades National Park – Part 2
- Delano And Pompey
- Everglades National Park – Part 1
- Last Glimpse
- Swamped
- This Road Trip Sponsored By…
- Unopened Christmas Cards
- What I Remember When I Try To Forget – Part 3
- What I Remember When I Try To Forget – Part 2
- What I Remember When I Try To Forget – Part 1
- Washington Slept Here
- The Great Escape
- Driving Through Georgia
- In The Words Of A President
- I Don’t Even Like Soccer
- Cherry Blossoms
- Storage Units
- Another View Of Gettysburg
- Crossing The Battlefield
- The Meraids Of Old Florida
- The Deal I Made With Delano
- Arizona Autumn
- Somewhere In Kansas
- A Misty Morning At Niagara
- Niagara Rain Falls
- The Tower That Became My Pillar
- Folded
- Tail Of The Dragon
- Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
- Chains, Motors, And Whistles
- Andersonville National Historic Site
- Living Deadly History
- Car Sick Or Sea Sick
- The Essence Of Egg
- Passes & Passing
- Firewood
- Monument Valley
- Down In Fraggle Rock
- Life Vests Optional
- In The Stairwell
- Third Time’s Not A Charm
- Water Fallen
- Michael
- The Portland Family Brownie Pan
- The American Bison
- All In Perspective
- Sliding Days And Sliding Doors
- Beautiful And Tasty
- Putting The Crazy In Crazy Horse
- Sand And Snow And Snapshots
- Somewhere