Fortitude

My friend Rachel has the day off from her day job as a graphic designer. She decided to spend it at Crazy Mocha, working on revisions of her latest manuscript for a series of young adult novels she writes in her spare time. She arrived at 9 and, except for a brief lunch break, has been here ever since.

As the clock arcs toward 6 PM, I sit here trying to remember what I've done in the same period of time -- breakfast, email, lunch, nap, phone calls... And as the pages of her manuscript keep flipping past me, one after another, I think to myself: that's dedication...