The Reason I was Working So Hard

When Aspen was 2 or 3 years old she would stick her head out the dog door of our hold house, and say “bye bye, daddy. Bye bye.” She did it each morning as I pulled out of the driveway, and I’ll be honest, thinking about her little blond pigtails shooting out the door, blue eyes wide with excitement to see her dad, two front teeth in a large gummy grin, well… it was one of those “this who I’m working so hard for” sort of moment.

At the time, I was working as an academic counselor for a grant funded program that supported low income students, writing articles in the mornings, and teaching two or three English classes each semester in the evenings. Mel was finishing her degree, and well… it was rough. I was exhausted.