#haley mcdaniel

Tried some Realism with one of my Favorite movie series!

Dear child(ren),

Today was a long and wonderful day. This morning, we celebrated your upcoming arrival with family and friends with a breakfast shower. We got lots of gifts and we talked a lot about you. People want to know your name, but I’ve convinced your mother we should keep it to ourselves, lest we tell someone what it is and they tell us we how much they dislike it. And then we will be forced to dislike them. Nobody wants that.

And then tonight, the Argenta Reading Series named a winner of its high school writing contest. Over the last month or so, I narrowed down over 50 entries to four finalists, and a panel of judges made up of Author Kevin Brockmeier, Laman Library Director Crystal Gates, and Arkansas Times Arts & Culture Editor Stephanie Smittle selected a winner: Haley McDaniel of Valley View High School. The readings were good. So good, in fact, that Crystal and the Laman Library decided to fund a $500 scholarship to each of the three other finalists. I was completely surprised by it. It made all the effort worth it.

Between the shower and the scholarships, I was reminded today of how much generosity and goodness there is in my world.

Dad