The Day before the Release of Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved to read. She read everything she could get her hands on. And she wrote. Her high school English teacher read her writing and began to grade her differently than everyone else, expecting more from her. The girl thought this was unfair and asked the teacher why. The teacher looked her straight in the eye and said, not unkindly, "Because you are capable of more."

You are capable of more.

Life moved on. A marriage. Children. Divorce. A remarriage. More children.

A death.

And all though it all the girl saw her teacher's face and heard the voice inside her head. She always wondered what her teacher thought of her, was her teacher disappointed as she watched from heaven–taken far too soon in her thirties from a sudden illness.

When the girl's husband died, also far too soon in an accident, she began to re-evaluate her life. What was important. What wasn't. And still, she heard the teacher's voice inside her head.

You are capable of more.

So the girl decided to finally live her life. Fulfill her life long dreams. Some were minuscule. Some were life changing. All fed her soul. But the biggest of all was huge and daunting. Was she deluded to think she could write a book?

You are capable of more.

She did it. And did it again. And again. She's done it five times now and she's still going and when she thinks that it's all a fluke, that she really isn't capable of doing this, the teacher's voice is there, soft and encouraging. And proud.

You are capable of more. I believed in you all along.