It really does take a village...

Okay, get this...

Hipmama.com saved my life. It sounds like an exaggeration... and maybe it is, just a little, but the reality of it all is that when I discovered hipmama.com back in 1999 shortly after my son was born, I discovered the most amazing support system that I would ever know. I made the friends that would show me how to not just live as a single mother, but how to thrive as one. I made friends there that would grow with me, as we watched our children grow. Friends that would become my family. Strong women who shared their weak sides with me. Women like me. Girls, given the enormous task of raising the next generation with terrible role models and little more than each other.

When I look back at us then, almost a decade ago, I am so completely and totally proud of what we've become since.

And here I thought I would never possibly find another support system like that. The kind that shared my fears and knew my battles. The kind of support system that had not just blind advice, but real life experiences to draw upon to help get me through the rough spots.

Well, I must be one lucky something or other, because I think I've landed myself right smack in the middle of another group of people that just might turn out to be just as amazing and supportive as my hipmama family. You see, the Transfer Re-Entry Student Parent Center at Cal is already the place on campus where I go if I need a hug. Who can say that about their school? I mean really, I think if everyone had a place on campus where they could just go for a hug, then school would be a lot less stressful for everyone! Who doesn't want a hug every now and then?

Now this is not to say that only my hipmama friends have gotten me here. That's just not true. There are others as well, girls who rocked my world by just letting me hang around their smart ass selves, and by smart ass, I mean highly intelligent. I wondered for a long time why they let me hang around them, my uneducated ass. They convinced me to go to school. Even though I thought for sure I would fail, give up, or otherwise sabotage myself. (Thanks you guys!)

But so far so good. I am enrolled in a student parent transfer class on Friday afternoons and for the first class meeting I had the honor of being the only student parent transfer in the room that wasn't totally stressed out! I think that means I'm doing okay so far.

We'll see what this week holds though... I don't want to get ahead of myself.