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As at least a few of you reading this did also, I spent my childhood summers jumping off docks, diving to its bottom for mussels, tubing and skiing behind boats. I learned early about living with things that can be frightening, when once, just a girl swimming off my grandparents’ dock, I tried to climb a ladder that a snake had wrapped itself around.

As we are welcoming in 2024, we still have some unfinished business from last year and the year before that, really going back to March 2020, when our lives were changed forever due to the onset of the COVID19 pandemic. A former co-worker tested positive this week, and was fine other than a stuffy nose and a sore throat.

A few nights ago, I was lying in bed deep in concentration trying to fall asleep. Concentrating because I was attempting to achieve the nearly impossible feat of falling asleep while breathing through my nose.

2023 is almost in the rearview mirror, but there are many things in our community, as in many other places, that will spill over into the new year. Solutions to problems are rarely achieved quickly.

University of Louisiana Monroe awarded degrees to graduates at the summer and fall 2023 commencement ceremonies earlier this month. Also, ULM named students on the President’s and Dean’s Lists for the fall 2023 semester.

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In a few days, we will celebrate Christmas with our loved ones. This year, we have been treated to a special vision of what Christmas could be for us as a community if we all pitch in and do a few special things based on our specific skill set.

Louisiana State University has announced the names of the students who have made the Dean’s List for the fall 2023 semester. The following Lake Providence residents earned this high honor: Kiley Frances Condrey in the College of Humanities & Social Sciences; Elizabeth Muir Amacker in the University College Center for Advising and Counseling; Calvin Wayne Thompson III, in the University College Center for Freshman Year.

We have raised a generation of young people that have an excuse for every action they take in life. While I do know mental illness is real, I also believe that we are not preparing our children for the world they will walk into once they become adults.

I saw a post on social media last week that really made me stop and think. The post was about “adopting” kids at Christmas.