(posted after I wrote it)

Today I am in Atlanta, Georgia for the Virginia Tech vs. Georgia Tech game. Two friends and I left Blacksburg at around 3:00pm and got to the hotel around 11pm. While we were driving last night, passing the pine trees and the 18-wheelers, I realized two things.

First, I am a college student who can leave in the middle of the day and drive to a different state to just watch a football game. I have less than two years to do things like this. I have a meal plan, my bills are paid for me and the only thing I have to complain about is too many exams and ESPN still ragging on Tech even though we are 5-1. I worked for three months this summer and can live on that money for nine. I have the best friends and boy friend that any one can ask for. They are my Hokie family. They support me in what I do, and would help me whenever I need it. They help balance me and know how to take some of the burden away when I am overwhelmed. I don’t know where I will end up after college, but I hope I still have some sort of relationship with all of these people.

The second realization stems from an event that I saw happen at one of these barred gas stations. We stopped to get gas and found one of the sketchiest (most sketchy?) gas station I have ever seen. They specialized in money orders, and apparently inside there were patrons scratching their lotto tickets at the counter to use their winnings to buy more lotto tickets. Anyway, while I was waiting in the car I saw a woman and her probably 5-year-old daughter leaving the store holding two, foot-long Slim Jims. The mother got into her white car and started it. I thought her daughter would get into the back. But instead, she skipped to the other side of the car and climbed in the front seat. Then before she could clip her seat belt, wait, before she could even sit down, her mother started accelerating, and the little girl’s braided head slammed against the passenger seat as they drove away.

The mother inside of me was appalled at this one event. And I thought of my mother and how she raised us. She sacrificed her entire life to put us through school and to take care of my sister and I the best she could. Even last week, she came up to Blacksburg from Va. Beach and took care of my sister when she was sick. She sacrificed her vacation at a lake house to take care of a daughter that lied to her days before. After working more than 24 hours straight at the hospital, she came home and raised a 5 year old and a 7 year old on her own. She made sure we were well clothed, well fed, and loved no mater what it took. I just want to thank her for raising me and never putting me in the passenger seat without a seat belt.