"A HEN IN THE CHICKEN COOP"

 It was my senior year, twenty years ago. Yes the class of 1991! I done everything with them, I took my senior and cap and gown portraits, visited colleges and ordered class rings. The last time I saw them as a class was at our senior prom. I had no intentions of telling them. No way was I going to endure the judgment. I was not going to tell them that while they were mailing out graduation invitations, I would be mailing out baby shower invitations. I was pregnant with my first child. I had dreams and aspirations of going to college. They remained but the dream was not for me anymore, it was for my son. Everything I did from that point on was for him, his education and his future. My son graduated in 2010 and decided to attend Alabama A and M University. I remember pulling up to “The Hill”. The pride I felt, knowing that it was all worth it. Even though this was my dream, it was his life, his decision. After spending one semester there, he decided college was not for him, so he came home and got a job. I respected that, because in the end, it is all about being true to you; but let’s not forget that I worked eighteen years for this, somebody was going to college! So here I am, a thirty nine year old College Freshman! Sometimes I get tickled pink from excitement and disbelief, and then there are times that I’m wondering what in the world am I thinking. Those are times that I feel like an old hen in the chicken coop, sitting next to students my son’s exact age. They peck away on their computers sucking in all the new knowledge like a sponge. While I sit there feeling like the sponge someone left on the sink for weeks, all dried out and brittle. At times I have to rub up against one of my classmates to receive a little moisture. Then there are other times that it just flows right in like flooding waters. Will there ever be a balance, a swift wind over beach waters? Will there be a common denominator between dry and moist? Will there one day be a bridge between their fresh knowledge and my wisdom? Will we gravitate at the same rate? Will we be equals as we graduate; or will I resonate as a hen in the chicken coop?