I was 5 when the San Gabriel Mountains faded into the background and we could no longer smell the salty Pacific or see the palm trees swaying in the breeze as we left Southern California for my Dad’s home state of Texas. It was a real eye-opener for my mother who was born and raised on the west coast to arrive in Midland…nicknamed the tall city full of dreamers and doers and the friendliest people on the planet who welcomed the transplants from the Golden State with open arms. I attended elementary school with a governor who became the 43rd President of the United States, went to high school with his first lady and the general who commanded the US military operations in the Middle East. After graduating high school my eyes were on a small liberal arts college in Louisiana majoring in dance with aspirations of a Broadway career, but my daddy whom I adored squashed my pipe dream suggesting that unless I wanted to be a nurse or teacher, finding a job was a better option for me, thus relegating my jazz hands to typing and shorthand, you remember shorthand – they’re called emojis today. I dove into the unknown with a burning desire to “see the dawn before the rest of the world”, armed with a story to tell led by blind faith – knowing if I failed I would have a built in learning experience to share with my grandsons – like Henry Ford said, airplanes take off against the wind not with it. Five years later I typed The End to my literary novel...dreams do come true!