Educational shenanigans

My parents grew up in New York. The concrete jungle is what they call it, and a jungle it is. I recall my father telling me stories about how his mom was worried about his safety just playing ball in the playground. Stories of him losing his best friend to gun violence was forever ingrained in his mind. Gun violence and gang initiation was the main reason why my father wanted more for himself. He found a love for music and became a DJ in local clubs. Somewhere along the beaten path he decided to become a secret service office and move his family out of New York where he wouldn't have to worry about their safety and security. Violence is everywhere we turn, for no reason we lose lives, injure people, and risk everything. Mexico is the world second most violent country according to npr.org. With a homicide rate of 23,000 in 2016 it was the higher than violence in Syria. Most deaths are associated with small arms violence. A lot of the violence stems from drugs c...

It was a bright and sunny day in June when I anxiously sent out my son’s first birthday invitation to the family. Everyone had been calling me to harass me about what we were going to do for his big day. My older sister called me and said she planned on making his first cake. My younger sister said she was buying enough balloons to fill his room. All I could do was smile and laugh at how crazy excited my family was about this event. Two weeks later I started receiving RSVP’s and as I anticipated everyone was replying yes. It was at that moment that I began getting anxious; where was I going to fit everyone? Will they like his party? What are they going to eat? The list continued to grow and my breathing got faster, my palms got sweaty, little black spots appeared in the sky. What was this I was feeling? Another anxiety attack, I haven’t had one of these in years. I tried calming myself down without any success, my husband came in the room and saw me curled up in the bathtub breathi...

I must say when people talk about the birth of their child they never prepared me for the birth of my child. I remember the week leading up to let's just call it "b-day" like it was yesterday. Those last and final days I remember being so tired, didn't want to get up for work, didn't want to walk the dogs, all I wanted to do was sleep. Who knew that would be the last time I'd sleep deeply. Day one of labor I recall dropping my step children off at summer camp. I was experiencing what I thought were Braxton hicks. Ironically my doctors appointment later that afternoon so I was anxious to tell her what I was feeling. Later at my appointment my husband and I went in there very excited, my doctor informed us that I was just a mere 2 cm dilated and that at 39 weeks I wouldn't make it to 40.  I just felt so different, I just knew that my son would be here soon. Later that day my contractions increase and I got even more anxious, so w...