Nothing For Granted

Christopher

I sipped the wine. “I do. I want to wait until after Olin graduates. I thought about going over the summer, but things between Olin and I were not in a good place. I didn’t trust him to ditch me in a foreign country and try to make it on his own.”

She laughed. “You’re not being serious.”

“I am being very serious. I don’t know if you’ve ever raised a teenager, but damn, they are stubborn.”

“I haven’t raised a teen, but I was a teen once.”

I chuckled. “True. I don’t remember being quite so difficult.”

She scoffed. “I was horrible, at least that’s what my many foster parents told me.”

“I didn’t know.”

“Few people do. It’s not exactly something I advertise. It’s in my past and that’s where I leave all that baggage. It helped shape who I am, but it does not make me who I am.”

I was impressed and proud. She’d done well for herself. “Good for you. Then you know what it’s like to have nothing.”

“Yes, I do. I think I appreciate everything just a bit more because of it.”

I immediate