World Traveling Student
I dedicate this to my friend Erica. As of now, she is my longest student and boarder, but that will all end next week. My dear friend has thrown up her hands to the traditional world and decided that she wants life a little more life-outrageous.
Erica came to me with a perfect little 3 year old chestnut mare in 2010…… whom she could not get rid of fast enough. That situation was my first introduction to her spontaneous nature. She didn’t like the mare, didn’t want the mare, SELL IT! It was like arguing to a counter top, she was resolute and we teased that she was heartless. Sell it, we did, and we found a lovely, svelte, calm OTTB. Before we could even fall in love with him, he had to be put down after a traumatic colic episode that was unlikely to improve. To help mend Erica’s broken heart, she rode Cochlear the Silly, but moved on when he became a little too lazy to be fun. Max the Wonderful, was fun but helped her break her arm severely. Zorro the Horrible, helped mend her confidence and Ollie the Incredible helped her see that she indeed does have a heart and can fall in love.
When she told me this summer that she would be traveling the world thus changing everything as we knew it, I couldn’t help but instantly cry. It was a shock. I have grown to love the stability she brings to the barn. I now know she has at the same time, grown to dislike that very same thing. She explained it to me perfectly when she said that I have known her for the most static years of her life. (thus implying that she did have a life before Polestar, which had never occurred to me?? Aren’t we the center of the universe?)
She may have been anchored here in Everett for the last 9 years, but she certainly has not been stale or boring. Erica is smart, funny and hilariously single. Her stories of dating have entertained us all for years. She is also a chef! And she had a big part of promoting the Polestar Cooking Contest that we host as often as we can; under the guise of teaching the working students how to be self-reliant, but really it’s just an excuse to eat and drink together.
So, onward and upward. Erica has a blog and I, for one, will be awaiting to hear how she experiences the world. For those of us who are tied down to a home/farm/horse/family etc…. she is the one who can live a little dangerously for us all. Feel free to subscribe to it and vicariously unshackle yourself.
