Wayside, Kansas
I don’t tend to be your typical dreamer. In truth, I don’t dream much at all. But last night I had a pretty common nightmare — I dreamed I was having to get up and go to school. I could see the dimly lit bedroom, feel the chill of early fall creeping in, smell the heat from the toaster as mama made my morning Pop Tart.

And the one thing I knew for sure was I didn’t want to go to school. I didn’t want to get up at all. Not even the gentle pawing of my beloved Boogie, almost two years gone now, was able to entice me from bed. Mama came to my doorway and stopped my wailing immediately when she said, “You don’t have to go to school anymore… but you do have to go to work.”

I woke up with my heart thudding in my chest wildly until I remembered the beautiful truth — I’m grown and I’m a freelancer. No more 8-3, no more 9-5. So just for that, I’m spending the morning in my pajamas.

Music: In Pieces by Linkin Park (lyrics)