Funny background story first:

My family plays a game called Wahoo. In this game, you get 4 marbles and 1 dice. If you roll a 1 or 6 you can leave your "prison" as I call it. Then you have to make it all the way around the board to your home. You have to get all 4 marbles in your home to win. The catch is, if someone lands in the same hole as your marble, you have to take that marble back to their cell until you roll another 1 or 6. If you get someone or roll a 6, you get another turn. If you win, you yell "WAHOO!" We get very competitive. One day, I was playing with 2 of my brothers and my grandmother. One of my brothers, the oldest of the 3 boys, gets one of my marbles out and starts talking smack about how he's going to destroy me and blah blah blah. And this is what I said, and also the motivational part:

"You cannot destroy me; I'm a phoenix and I will rise from my ashes."

My grandmother LOVED it! Now whenever I feel some crushing weight of defeat I tell myself that this may consume me but I will rise every time I fall. I was 14.

I am going to tell you what I watched my friend do today... it's what I watch her do every single day. In the three years that I have known her she has not been absent one single day.

Her job title is listed as school custodian but she wears about ten other hats and still she manages to do it all with a smile on her face and the most wonderful sense of humor. In the hallway today she was cleaning up after a child that didn't quite make it to the bathroom but had perfect aim and timing as they managed to hit right in the center where four halls join in an area of the school during transition. Now you can tell 1st and 2nd graders to watch out but...yeah some well...they just didn't understand in time...

We actually had to shelter in place today for over an hour due to the weather. 5th graders who had been chugging water bottles were lined up and down the hall after we got the all clear ...through it all she kept her smile and addressed them with "how you doing baby?" "You having a good day?" Acknowledging each one of them...taking the time to talk to them as she mopped up their splashes from the sink area. Telling those with untied shoes to "tie those up baby." I have watched her tie so many shoes over the years.

As I walked in with my kids during lunch I overheard her telling some friends who had made some not so good choices that they are "better than this." When I came back to get my group I saw her cleaning down the long lines of tables. Ever see a cafeteria after 100 plus 5th graders had lunch? It's not pretty.

I swear she outworks ten people and seriously I have never her complain about anything. When I was leaving she was in one of the staff restrooms cleaning and still smiling telling me "have a good night my sweet." I just don't understand how some of the hardest working people who we would be so totally lost without don't earn what they should...she is priceless.

When I walked into school today for my first day on the job, I never imagined the feeling I would have when I headed home this afternoon. After learning where the janitorial supplies were kept, I swept the floors and cleaned the bathrooms just like I did on my previous job.

Around lunchtime, I hear on the loudspeaker that every teacher and staff member is to report to the main office before leaving school today. I briefly question if that would include me since I had only been there for ten hours, but I want to be sure I am following all orders.

I can't ever remember receiving a gift when it was not my birthday or Christmas. The office assistant said that a volunteer brought in thank you gift bags for every member of the staff and that included me. As I placed the "You are appreciated" note on my refrigerator and savored a couple of high-end chocolates later that night, I knew I had the best job in the world.

"Uh-Oh..."

Boom!

I went flying through the air and slammed into the wall.

"Oh frick..."

Too late to turn back now.

I drew my weapon I knew I didn't have much time.

One came in. His head was covered by a green helmet his chest had a bulletproof vest. I shot at him twice and hit him twice, once in the leg and once in the chest. The vest really worked because he wasn't dead! He started to crawl away gritting his teeth. I shot him once more and he was dead. I wasn't going to be taken. I had to resist this wave and run away. The resistance was counting on me. I had the information we needed. I knew who was really in control! I had to get out of there.

More soldiers were coming in and I was shooting them as they came. I was running low on ammo and had to go. I made an executive decision to shoot the window to my right and jumped through. I began to run. Then the chase began.

Bullets were whizzing by my head. I turned and shot behind me. It hit the nearest soldier and dropped him.

I was so close to the pickup spot when I felt a sharp pain in my leg and fell on my face.

No no no no! I thought. I tried to crawl away. I rolled onto my back and fired five times killing two soldiers.

"Chris!" I heard Val yell.

She shot three shots and killed an enemy.

"Come on Chris!" She yelled, "I got you."

"No," I said, "Just go I'll cover you!" I shot more soldiers.

"I am not leaving without you!"

"Please just go!" I yelled you need to tell Keith! It's Tarry! He's the one!"

"What!?" Val yelled, "How, why!"

"Just run!"

"No!"

I sat up and shot five more shots before I was hit in the left arm.

"Go!" That was the last thing I said. I was hit again and everything went black.

We, alone, sat in the back of the bus. It was just us. We didn't understand what had happened and we couldn't tell what would. All we knew was what was happening and that was enough. I was sitting on the left with him right beside me. We stared through the bus window at the flashing sights. We had never been outside. It was like our brains were being tortured and there was an immediate battle between the imaginary and the real. Reality was both overwhelming and subpar, simply unexplainable. He was my only sure reality. He squeezed my hand and it felt like the realest thing ever. Together we feared.

One could think of it as a practice in dealing with rejection. No need to take it personally. Some things explode, and some things don't. Doesn't mean that the idea was bad. It could have been posted at a weird time, drowned in the trending page, or maybe it was just such a novel idea that no one was really sure how to approach it. I find all sorts of unanswered challenges hiding out on the Recent (New?) tab, even though the Trending tab is the first one to appear when you click on the Challenges link.

It's a bummer. I know it sucks to not get even a single response, so sometimes I try to comb through the challenges and enter ones that are kind of quiet. I often find that the quiet ones force me to think outside of my comfort zone, and being pushed as a writer is nothing but a good thing.