Monthly Archive: February 2025

It was years before I discovered why we got married in February.

When planning our wedding, hubby-to-be didn’t care to have much input. But, he said, “I want to choose the date.” Okay, I thought. Not a big deal.

When he chose February 19, I remember thinking it was kind of an odd choice, but okay.

Years later, I’m not sure how or why it came up, but the truth came out.

My husband is a huge sports fan. I knew this going in. It’s okay. I come from a family of sports fans. He is pretty much interested in all sports, but baseball and football are his passion. Turns out there is a very small window in any given year where no football or baseball are played. (This year there were only twelve days from the super bowl to the start of spring training.) Guess what date falls in that small window.

When I realized this, my response, of course, was, “So, you didn’t want our anniversary to interfere with any of your sports?”

“No, baby,” he said in his always hilarious style. “I didn’t want sports to ever interfere with our anniversary.”

How could I be mad? I actually admired his ingenuity, which, by the way is still working 25 years later. We returned three days ago from our celebratory cruise, which “just happened” to coincide with opening day of spring training.

Play ball.

That little piece, written in January 1998, would ultimately cause me to change paths with reverberations even into retirement.

Not only did I learn how great an outlet writing could be, but the response I received when the article was published really touched me. Friends, family, neighbors, even strangers reached out.

Shortly afterwards, I started thinking about going back to school.

A friend connected me with a professor at the University of Central Florida (UCF). After reading some of my writing, he asked, “Why do you want to come back to school?”

“Because I want to be a writer,” I told him.

“But you’re already a writer,” he said.

It’s amazing how those simple words affected me. It’s not like he said I was a good writer. And, he actually even added, “I’d stay away from poetry.”

But I took it and ran. It was as though I was waiting for any nugget of encouragement.

By the end of the year, I was enrolled as a full-time student in English at UCF.

At my “retirement” party from the Kennedy Space Center, the cake read: “You’re Doing the Write Thing!”

They were right. Although it was not the most financially sound decision I could have made, I have never regretted it.

And, I learned to always be generous with those nuggets of encouragement.