A Rachel Shout-Out

The weird thing to me about Rachel is that her mother was one of my sister-in-law's closest friends throughout school. Her mother. My sister-in-law.

We'd only had one conversation before I was assigned to assist in her history class at our Co-Op. That's when we talked about our writing aspirations, critiqued religions, and discussed performing arts before students began asking if we could keep our voices down so they could concentrate and complete their worksheets. We gave them bowls of popcorn to subdue them and returned to a conversation that had, curiously, morphed into fangirl whispering over the odd allure of Lost's John Locke.

What struck me in all our conversations, though, was Rachel's discipline as a writer. She has a blog. She writes everyday. She gets up early to write. She has three young children compared to my one, just-turned-teen. My excuses were vanishing as we spoke. I realized that one of the most futile things I could do was to continue to keep so many of my ideas in my mind and away from paper or flash drives. I had to stop living in my head so much and begin showing external proof of the writer inside.

So, Rachel, one word for you: Thanks.

Rachel's blog: http://www.rachel-homegirl.blogspot.com/