The Summer My World Burned Down

During the summer of 2002, Coloradoans witnessed several massive forest fires. One of them was the Hayman fire, which torched more than 138,000 acres of national forest. In this fire, which was started by a federal forestry officer, one hundred and thirty three homes were lost. Six people lost their lives, and it’s impossible to know how much wild life did not survive.

I remember several weeks of the sky glowing dark pink, and the sun was a ferocious blazing red. Ashes covered our cars and lawns, even though the burn was more than an hour’s drive away on the interstate highway. Asthmatics and people with other breathing problems were urged to remain inside, or else admitted to hospitals.

Sanity and Reason: A Conversation About Panic Disorder

I thought writing about this topic this weekend. I’m still a little hesitant, yet…

In honor of discovering and understanding more about myself, I am going to digest a few things out loud. Or in writing. Because it’s my site, and I can, dammit.

About a decade ago, I met a girl named J. She was my younger brother’s girlfriend, was thirteen, and had been kicked out of her house. Because I had my own place, it was only fitting that my brother’s family would ask if she could stay with me. She was a very polite, beautiful, and sort of emo-style girl who was old beyond her age. She had dropped out of school, and was unemployed. I loved her immediately, as was my style, because I saw the potential within her; and true to my nature, I saw an opportunity for me to express my own desperate need to help. Knight in shining armor complex to the fullest of its definition.