Always starting at ground level

Sam has asked me several times in the past week how he can search for a job for his coop education credit next semester. That's all that's left between him and graduating from North Central Texas College with a technical degree, and finding a job.

For millions of other parents, this is the part where your child flies. They've laid the foundation in college, made loads of connections, worked with their college placement office, gone to job fairs, sent out resumes, interviewed, and got a job. You just get to sit back and watch the beauty of that butterfly unfold.

Not for kids like Sam. The world doesn't know what to do with his smarts and his expertise because it comes in an unusual package. He is a hard worker, congenial, reliable -- just ask the folks at Albertsons where he's been sacking groceries for the last five years.

We planted a couple of seeds early in the semester, hoping some support for his upcoming job search will take root. But I've traveled this road so many times before.

I know what it's going to take. I've got to stop everything else I'm doing (and as the single working mom of three, running a farm, threatened by the foulest kind of industry next door, it's pretty effin' busy around here) and devote hours and weeks and months of energy to help him get this going.

He deserves it. I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror, but give me a minute to shake my fist at the sky first.