On a basement bookshelf of my home sits a framed photograph I’d forgotten about until recently. In that picture, I’m beaming in cap and gown, flanked on either side by my smiling parents as we stand in the backyard garden of a former landlord’s property. That day was muggy and hot (not surprising for May in South Carolina), and I remember my nervous anticipation on that celebratory afternoon–the kind of feeling where you’re not sure if your stomach is buoyed with breathless excitement or clenched in apprehension…or, more likely, both. Either way, you’re holding your breath a bit more than usual.   While milestone moments can seem cliched to focus on, they do often define real junctures, and mine that afternoon certainly did.   I had made all sorts of plans, convinced that I needed to map things out in particular ways. Some of those plans would take dramatic turns […]