Folks, I am coming out of the gate on fire! I spent all summer writing and it seems to have translated into one of my better starts to a semester. It’s like staying in shape during an off-season but for the mind. I’m old and smoke a LOT of weed, so staying in the habit of using my brain keeps me sharp.

Last summer, I barely wrote at all and I stumbled ass-backwards into school. I basically ended up behind immediately and had to persistently play catch-up. My wife’s business has been crazy too, so I’m playing homemaker, going to school, and jumping in for her when needed. Being ahead of the game is making all of this surprisingly simple.

Speaking of my wife’s business, it is doing very well. We are still poor, but we don’t operate in the red. Furthermore, my wife doesn’t have a boss, which is worth being broke. Payroll is expensive. So is paying mileage. It is what it is, and my wife’s employees all seem to enjoy working for her, so that’s nice.

But yeah, we have no money. I had to go to school entirely online this semester because both of our cars had problems at the same time. We have one kind of janky car between the two of us.

Anyway, school has me remembering where I came from, which is good. What I mean by that is I am still being humbled by it. I am occasionally reminded that I am a high school dropout who doesn’t know shit.

Just today, I was working on some stuff for class, including a paper that wanted me to use a variety of ‘reporting verbs.’ “What the fuck is a reporting verb?” was my first thought. Then I had to look it up and get a fun worksheet to help me. My curiosity hasn’t failed me yet.

Emerson. I am applying to Emerson and I don’t know what a reporting verb is. Maybe I should’ve stayed in school instead of quitting to sit around depressed and play video games in my teens, but here we are. I might hang the cursive alphabet around my desk too…

I have been plugging this place like crazy lately. Exciting stuff.

Even though I have much better examples of my work, I enjoy how easy it is to drop a link and let somebody get an idea of my voice. While the site is a sea of incriminating and poorly edited essays, I’m happy with it. I need to go back and fix all my early essays, though. I think my first one has a typo right off the rip. Once again, dropout.

Those origins are what push me ahead. I want to learn something new every single day. Coming out of the other side of ignorance fuels me. I guess I am just sick of being dumb.

Now I know what reporting verbs are. I’m feeling good, man.

Do drugs give hugs,

JTC