Articles

As I Walked Home I looked at my report card: a double check in self-control. I couldn't believe it.

AS A LITTLE GIRL, I displayed a dogged insistence on having my own way just often enough for family members to refer to me smilingly as "stubborn" Barbara. It was a label I found most unattractive.

I COULDN'T TELL if she had plans to pick my pocket or to pick a fight. Or both.

WHAT ARE THE PROSPECTS FOR YOUR LIFE? Many are perfectly happy with the way their lives are going, while others believe that they have been put in situations that offer little opportunity. Whether it comes from accident, heredity, disease, socioeconomic status, or what is perceived to be just plain bad luck, some may feel that what life offers is just insurmountable.

DON'T TELL CHRISTINE DRIESSEN TO SLOW DOWN. Not with all that's on her plate these days.

"VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL. " It's a common phrase among community churches, especially in the summertime, when parents are looking for positive experiences for their children.

Heather Martin thought she was going to have a vacation from all things writing related when she took a trip to Boston last summer. What the doctoral student at Baylor University in Texas didn't know was that setting foot in our offices was as good as saying, "Sign me up for an article!" Sure, it took a few months to make it all happen, but we think you'll get a lot out of the final product.

MISS EBERT WAS WHAT SOME MIGHT HAVE CALLED an "old-maid school teacher. " She probably would have taken the moniker as a compliment, saying it was true because she had gray hair and had never married, but knowing all the while that such a title was conferred with respect on that special kind of teacher who had raised more children than any mother.

JESSICA IS THE NICEST person ever. She and I have been friends for four years.

I GUESS YOU COULD SAY the job started out being about me. I was a counselor-in-training at a summer camp for Christian Scientists—really psyched to be there.