Being a Student Parent: The Juggling Act
By: Sophie Jeffery, Editor
Original art by Benjamin Richter
On my drive to McKendree, I'm distracted by both Karen and Georgia from My Favorite Murder talking about Ruth Thalia* and the to-do list that is constantly running through my head, so when the van in front of me comes to a dead stop at the railroad tracks just inside Lebanon, I have to stop short to avoid hitting it. Something tumbles forward from between my kids’ captain's chairs in the middle of the van. “Please don’t be a lunchbox, please don’t be a lunchbox,” I whisper to myself. At the stop sign, I take a quick peek and there it is: my son Beckett’s blue lunchbox settled upside-down behind the center console. Crap.
I flip around in the McDonald’s parking lot and head all the way back to Mascoutah, mentally attempti...