A short story about importance of saying no in life. 

There was one event in 2014 that brought me back to being a nervous middle-schooler worried that my secret crush might find out my feelings. It wasn’t getting married, as that day was the best day of my life. It wasn’t switching jobs, which did throw me for a loop for about three weeks. 

“Thanks John,” the young kid muttered as we called it a night after a long Christmas day.  This Christmas I worked the entire shift at a residential treatment facility for kids.  

I’m not going to be the husband that makes his wife takes the seat in between two strangers. I began the process of convincing myself that I could catch up on the sleep I missed in the middle seat without drooling on a stranger. 

“We are afraid of death because we fear we have not live…” a quote that a came across months ago and was filed away. After two-night in New Orleans and running on roughly 8 hours of sleep in the last 48 the author of that quote eludes me. 

I read a Facebook post recently announcing that “it was time to get off Facebook, - too many racists.”  But racism doesn't go away if we ignore it.  

        I was sauntering across campus as a college junior in Des Moines, Iowa about 5 minutes late for my ancient philosophy class. I was always late that time in my life and not much as improved since then

A conversation about who had it worse leads to a understanding we are equals.