Ever wonder why people are the way they are? The first assignment I give my students each year is “Help Me Get To Know You”. It’s a short list of questions. Among them, when’s your birthday? [...]
Are you ever frustrated when you can’t solve the whole problem? Anyone who’s grown up on a ranch or farm (like me) knows there’s always animals to feed, pens to clean, and fences to fix. Animals [...]
The first time you come home after your dog dies is a hard moment. I never knew exactly how old Bentley was. I rescued him. Not from a shelter but from some people who obviously didn’t treat him [...]
How long has it been since you asked for something new? Growing up an Iowa farm boy, snow cones were a cold treat you enjoyed at the county fair. They described them as snow yet reality was the [...]
I live at a place called Buffalo Springs Lake. Part of Yellow House Canyon, it’s a topographical aberration in the endless miles of flatness that is the South Plains of Texas. My backyard is [...]
We’ve all likely endured a bad one in our careers. But what makes a good manager? While I’ve been self-employed most of my life, in those seasons where I worked for a company Denise Birling was [...]
When you’re gone, how will you be remembered? Right before summer break the yearbooks came in. A hardcover pictorial of the 2018-19 school year. Students busily flipped pages, pointing, laughing, [...]
Have you ever done a good deed that appeared to go wrong? Maybe it didn’t. Maybe you just don’t know the whole story. When my girls and I first moved to Lubbock we made it our weekly mission to [...]
There’s a rogue sunflower growing in my flower pot. It’s tall and strong and going to bloom any day now. I didn’t plant it. The birds did. But now that I see it there I’m wishing I could take [...]
Dearest Students, Sometime early in your freshman year I said to you, “Blink three times and you’ll be seniors getting measured for your graduation robes.” I could tell by the “Whatever, Mr. T…” [...]
