Essays

My list of wanna-do’s the Sunday after Thanksgiving did not include getting on a bus in Laredo at 6:30 in the morning and riding for 13 hours back to Rice Institute in Houston. I knew that boredom and a sore butt were a sure bet. What I didn’t see coming was a searing moment of ineptness and failure. I didn’t see a moment that haunts me still.

Now at St. Peter’s School, they taught us we should always obey the law. The nuns also said it was a sin to disobey your parents. Suddenly my brain was full of anxious bees. I couldn’t obey both rules. Which one was more important? Grandpa wasn’t exactly a parent, but he was certainly Daddy’s father. And anyway, he was driving the car.