I really should be blogging more.  I have said this to myself repeatedly in the last two weeks as life has been happening at its usual supersonic pace around here.

I worked for an OB/GYN my senior year in high school and my first year of college.  She said to me one time that any woman can take away your man, any thief can steal your things, but nobody can ever take away your education.  This truth has echoed in my head for years.  On December 11, I submitted the very last assignment that I will ever submit to Troy University.  You see, I started LSU 20 years ago and although I’ve gone back a couple of times, I never finished.  My Mom placed a huge value on education and I lost her in July of 2006.  Just before she died she asked me to promise her that I would finish school.  I enrolled at Troy University that fall and continued to take classes through cancer, deployments, and a couple of moves.  I now hold degrees in business and psychology and I graduated magna kum laude.  I thought it would feel like a big burden had been lifted.  I did feel that, but the overwhelming feeling has been pain.  My Mom’s absence has never been so evident.  I just wish I could share this moment with her.

She spent her life doing advocacy work and the last decade of it was spent as the state director for ARC (assoc. for retarded citizens).  We had no idea that all that time she spent lobbying and advocating for people with special needs would benefit her own grandchildren.  So…thank you Mother, for the woman you were and for the encouragement and inspiration you have always provided me.  I miss you!