Just Me

  Several years ago, one of my kids, who was a teenager, asked me if I could help out a friend. At this time, this friend identified as female. This person was also sexually active (the two of them were the same age) and recently, this person had sex with their boyfriend. Unfortunately, the condom their partner wore leaked, and this person was terrified of becoming pregnant. This person DID NOT want to be a teen mom! They planned to finish high school and go to college. They had dreams to chase after.   So my oldest asked me if I would help them to get emergency contraception (EC). At the time, I was not well-versed with the law about this sort of thing, but I did know that ECs were available for free at clinics. However, I was wary of opting to help out, because I didn’t know if it was legal to do so. I didn’t know if it was legal to help a minor obtain emergency birth control. I also did not want to interfere in what should have been something that their mom would need t...

  One of my favorite quotes is “Don’t let waiting become a habit.” I love this quote because it says a lot about just how much people value your time.   I have always been tapped into things that I need to do RIGHT NOW. Even when I was in school, if I felt I needed to do a particular thing in this point in time, then I did it. I didn’t think, “Gee, maybe I should wait until I am older.” I just did it! There was one time I applied for a correspondence writing course. They turned me down because I was too young (I was 16 at the time). They encouraged me to go out into the world and get some life experience first, then come back to reapply. (Which I did and … didn’t.)   It’s just that if I feel compelled to do something RIGHT NOW, then I do it!   Sometimes, though, there have been people in my life who I NEEDED to do things with, but they weren’t all that decisive about whether they wanted to go through with it – either with me, personally, or at that part...

  “Did you write in your journal last night?”   The question caught me off guard. I was dropping my oldest off for work this morning, but before he got out of the car, he asked me this question.   I thought about when I had gone to bed last night. I usually write in my journal just before I go to bed. Sometimes I write in the journal if there is something that I need to write in it earlier in the day, but, for the most part, I usually write in it just before going to sleep.   But that didn’t happen last night. Last night, it was almost 12:30AM when I finally got to bed, and I was exhausted. I hadn’t thought about the journal at all!   “No,” I replied. “But I blogged.”   “Check your journal,” he said. Then he mentioned a note he wrote yesterday. I asked about it, but he had to get going, so he repeated the request that I check my journal.   So, I did. And right on top of my journal, in the protective band, was his note he’d wri...