Summer's Almost Gone

As empty cicada shells lie around the porch, I am reminded that the days get shorter and the evenings cooler. Labor Day, the close of summer, is just around the corner. School has started, and this is it. This is my final year in the sheltered life of grad school. That reality has been difficult to accept. There is fear of the unknown future, which threatens to sabotage all of my good work to date. Yet there is support from all my experiences in the past, determination in the present, and hope for my future (the world's future). It is hard to balance out the daily demands with daily needs and emotions, but no one said life was easy. It's just simple. Simply live.