Focus

There are a lot of tricks we all employ to keep ourselves focused. Calendars taped to the walls. Electronic reminders beeping to us in our sleep. Photographs pasted to the refrigerator door. My focus came in a few forms. One, my binder full of recipes and tips, was the first bit of physical focus I pulled into my apartment. This blog yet another. And now I have a third. A can that once contained whole coffee beans has now been covered in recipes from past issues of "Cook's County," a slit has been cut into its plastic top. This is my piggy bank. In it goes loose change, loose bills, random bits of money I might choose to put in there whenever I am moved to. The point of this little piggy? To remember that I am moving toward something greater. To remember that school is still in my future even if I have to pay for it myself with every penny-penny-give-me-luck-i'm -the-one-who-picked-you-up. And if for some reason funding finds its ways through other avenues then that little piggy will walk itself all the way to the bank and to the bakery that will come after school. The home I will build for myself where I will always walk in clean and emerge at the end of the day smelling of cinnamon and flour.