How Could This Happen ?

Everyone likes her when they meet her.  She is sweet and kind

and incredibly smart.  She has potential beyond measure.  I have

seen it so many times over the years.  

"Why didn't she finish what she started?", people often ask. She

had a set back.  She had some temporary health issues.  They interfered

with the semester in her junior year.  

At the end of four years she left.  Something was missing.  It was her final goal.

It would have looked so amazing in a frame.  Eighteen more credits would have

made it happen.  No one ever counted on her getting sick and having to make up

the failed credits.  She came up short. It would not be honest to list a degree on a 

resume that does not exist.

She left five years ago.  "Will she ever go back and finish what she started?", many

ask that question.

She met a troubled soul.  She loves him and absorbs her life with him.  She has a 

job that pays far less than she would have received with that precious degree.

She doesn't like to talk about her unfinished business. 

I wonder if she realizes how I secretly cringe and my heart sinks every time I think

of what could have been in her life.