Leslie Field

"That child talks incessantly,” the woman whispers to herself as she drives her child to the daycare.  “I have an idea!  Let’s play the Quiet Game.”

The child, always wanting to please Mommy, eagerly agrees.  A few precious moments of quietness pass.  The woman looks in her rearview mirror and sees the child looking back at her.  The child’s lips are tightly pressed together in a desperate attempt to keep from talking.  The woman discreetly covers her smile and continues to drive.

A few more moments pass.  The child then sees a structure in the distance surrounded by majestic pines.  Breaking the blessed silence, the child exclaims, “Mommy, what is that?”

She looks to her right to see the elusive edifice that was her child’s ultimate downfall.  The woman is suddenly overcome with memories of her youth.  She remembers a time when anything seemed possible and time stood still.  She begins to wonder where her determination has fled and wonders still if it will ever return. 

“The decisions you make now will shape the rest of your life,” her father had said.  His disappointment was apparent in every word he spoke.

But the woman cannot bring herself to regret a single decision she has made.  Instead, she looks back at the expectant child restrained in a car seat and says, “That’s a place that makes dreams come true.”

The child’s eyes grow large with wonderment.  Barely able to speak, the child whispers, “I want to go there.”

The woman takes one last pensive look as they pass the structure in the distance.  “Maybe one day,” she says with a sigh, “we’ll both go there.”

This story is true.  The child that thankfully could not stop talking is my now twelve year old daughter.  The elusive edifice that caused the stirring in my heart was Lone Star College-Kingwood.

My father was right.  The decisions we make do shape our lives.  However, just because one isn’t twenty anymore doesn’t mean there are a lack of choices.  The path I have chosen is not an easy one.  It is filled with the needs and demands of a fifteen year long marriage, two children, a full-time job and part-time volunteering.  But the people in my life are not obstacles to bypass on my “road to success.”  They are my cheerleaders, my fan club and my support group.

Thanks to Lone Star College-Kingwood, I have once again found my drive and determination, and I am now ready to make my dreams come true.