Susan Hines-Brigger

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out? ” You could say that quote from Dr. Seuss summed me up when I was growing up. To say I had a very individual style is an understatement.

At an age when most girls were busy playing dress-up and fixing their hair, my hair was covered with a baseball hat. While my friends were playing with Barbies, I was outside tossing a tennis ball against the side of our house. And when my friends covered their walls with posters of the latest teen heartthrobs, I was putting up posters of football great Walter Payton.

“Beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts the most.”

This quote from the movie Hope Floats has always struck a chord with me. And lately I’ve been thinking about it a lot. In fact, a few weeks ago, after a particularly trying and chaotic morning, I posted on Facebook: “Before kids, mornings were so much easier. But they sure weren’t as adventurous or fun.”