This article's going to be a bit of a ramble, but those who know me should appreciate it.

We all have places where we think better. Places where we are at home, where we can engage in introspection and think about life in general. While there's a strong tendency to want to stay in those places, I have found that those places are best to visit, so that we don't get too comfortable or too complacent. For me, one of those places is the place where I grew up.

There's something inside of me that functions best when I can commune with nature. Walking through a field for two hours does more for me than the best trained psychologist could do in ten. Once I'm freed from the distractions that are so prevalent in the world around me, I can think more clearly about where I came from, where I am, and where I am going.

I am beginning to understand that my life is at one of those all important crossroads, and has been for some time. I have always been a maverick and possessed a somewhat rebellious streak...and in the tasks I've usually chosen to undertake, that has served me well. I would charge into a project much like the old berserker of legend, slashing my way through to the end result with reckless abandon. I would jump creeks and leap chasms in hikes with little thought of the potential consequences.

But just as age has brought me to treat my body with extra care through deliberation, it has done the same for my approach to projects. My body's easier to handle, though: anticipation of two days' worth of knee soreness slows me up on the jumps, where it's not so easy to foresee the consequences of other decisions.

I am finding that I am reaching a point in life where people are soliciting me to be a leader. One of the most obvious problems in the Texas Panhandle is a leadership deficiency, as our best and brightest often move away to greener pastures elsewhere, and I am at tht age where I should be coming in to my own, and many people look at the enthusiasm and charisma that I possess and see me as being that person. While I can do a self assessment and see that I have the skills, the problem is, I don't have the training. I was never taught to be a leader, and my individualist tendencies, while having good benefits, have held me back from developing the substantial relationships from which those skills are so often taught. But I'm probably best aided by the fact that I see this deficiency, and know what I need to do to correct it (and am doing it). Right now, though, asking me to be a leader would be like putting me in front of a jet engine and saying "fix it!" I may have the tools, I may have the aptitude, but unless I have the training, I'm really not of much use. Truthfully, though, I never thought I'd live this long, having inherited a fatalistic outlook young in life, and never saw the need to prepare for this point in life.

I embrace crossroads, I embrace changes. While there's a nervousness about what lies beyond, there's an excitement about the endless possibilities. Whether I will be a good leader, or a bad one, remains to be seen, but I want to know I have at least put forth an effort.

This campaign, I believe has been the catalyst for my desire to step up and to lead. It has opened my eyes to the very real possibilities that lie before me, if I choose to accept them and handle them well. While I may not be sitting in the Texas House of Representatives next January (although I sure intend to TRY), I do believe the personal growth that has come out of this campaign will have made it entirely worth it.