The Fiery Quill

Just me and my couch....hanging out with icy glass of something sweet. The cat is sleeping in the closet and a candle is flickering on the counter. Jamiroquai keeps me company, the trumpet soft and low. Abe Lincoln leans with the latest copy of Women's Health on the bookshelf. My friend Sim smiles out from her perch on the shelf above. My mother looks serene in her gilded frame, contradicting the jumble of books and papers that line the cubes below. A striped kitten guards the television set, facing off against the cable guide and some Boston Bruins fans. A couple embrace above the blinking lights of the AIWA, looking pristine in their evening wear. And I recline on the couch, laptop in lap and smile on face.

Upon recently adding another birthday notch to my lipstick case...I feel I need to reflect a bit on the decade that came before. At 18 I was no different from most high-school graduates trying to figure out how to make their mark in the world. So I, like many, went off to the hallowed halls of higher education. Welcome to Appalachian State University: Home of the Mountaineers, hacky-sack circles, hippies, wannabe Warren Buffets....and yours truly. Me. With too-big pants, dorky, but still enthusiastic. ALWAYS enthusiastic, even when the idea or activity didn't end up being a great idea. Fast forward 4 years. I have not only managed a BA in Journalism with a minor in English Lit....But I actually had pulled almost a 4.0 (3.98 to be exact), joined a sorority (I know, I know), been inducted into an honor society, lived overseas, and brainwashed myself into deciding on law school as my next career/life move. My brilliance is staggering, isn't it? Moving on..I lasted two years and ch...