4:13 Podcast: Can I Unwrap the Gift of Limitations? With Sara Hagerty [Episode 317]

Sara Hagerty: This is a picture of what I do in a lot of my life, where I fix my eyes on what I want. And a lot of times it's good and godly and beautiful things. And then I ignore the limitations I have around me or the warning signs I might have that I might not get that thing. I pray harder, I become more determined, I work tirelessly, until finally -- and I've had it in several seasons -- something reveals to me this may not actually be the goal of God for me, and I've ignored every sign he's given me to surrender essentially.

Jennifer Rothschild: Are you feeling stretched to your limits and wishing that those limits were not even there at all? Well, today's guest, Sara Hagerty, wants to ask you a couple of questions. So what if the places where you feel the most overextended are actually the doorways to rich intimacy with God? Or what if your limitations were, in fact, your greatest gift? Oh, my friend, the boundaries that are created by our life circumstances can actually lead to growth and the life that you long for. So get ready to name your limitations, know when to embrace them, and to know when to challenge them, and all the while experience God's strength in your weakness.

There's good stuff today, so, K.C., let's go.

K.C. Wright: Welcome to the 4:13 Podcast, where practical encouragement and biblical wisdom set you and I up to live the "I Can" life, because you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Now, welcome your host, Jennifer Rothschild.

Jennifer Rothschild: Well, hey, friends. That was K.C. Wright, my Seeing Eye Guy, and it's two friends here in the closet. And you know the drill by now: one topic and zero stress. And listen, I got no stress right now because my friend K.C. brought me the most amazing -- wait for it -- lavender latte.

K.C. Wright: Come on now.

Jennifer Rothschild: I'm holding it up like you can see it. It's so good. It's very mild.

K.C. Wright: Yeah?

Jennifer Rothschild: You got it at this place called the Ozark Mill, is that correct?

K.C. Wright: Ozark Mill Workshop. And they just have all kinds of things that they serve which are grown on the property.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah. So I guess they grow the lavender. It's a very hint of lavender.

K.C. Wright: Yeah.

Jennifer Rothschild: It's really tasty. This is really nice, y'all. So I feel very groovy right now drinking my lavender latte.

Okay. But I had something I needed to tell K.C.

K.C. Wright: Okay.

Jennifer Rothschild: And I wanted to wait until we were all together because it affects all of us. We're all going to get a lesson.

K.C. Wright: Oh, is this family time?

Jennifer Rothschild: This is family time.

K.C. Wright: Everyone gather in.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yes. Because I've gotten two emails. When I get one email, I respond and I say thank you very much, and I note it. When I get two emails, I think, okay.

K.C. Wright: Oh, no, I did something.

Jennifer Rothschild: It's very minor. And we're all going to benefit. We're getting a grammar lesson. Okay, K.C., I wrote down on a piece of paper. You see those words, "you" and "I"? And then I wrote "we" and "us."

K.C. Wright: Okay.

Jennifer Rothschild: All right. Now, my people, every now and then, K.C., because he's so generous and loving -- he's trying to be inclusive when he introduces the podcast. All right. So you will say, Welcome to the 4:13 Podcast, where practical encouragement and biblical wisdom -- "sets you up" is what we're supposed to say, right?

K.C. Wright: Okay.

Jennifer Rothschild: And sometimes, because you're being so kind and generous and you want everybody to be part, you say, "Sets you and I up."

K.C. Wright: Oh.

Jennifer Rothschild: I've gotten two emails --

K.C. Wright: Okay.

Jennifer Rothschild: -- that tell us that that is grammatically incorrect.

K.C. Wright: Okay.

Jennifer Rothschild: You cannot say "you and I." You have to say "you and me" or "us."

K.C. Wright: Thank you. I needed this. And I hear it, receive it, love it, and obey it. And let me just tell you right now, Mrs. Kupfer, Mrs. Sue Kupfer, was my favorite teacher in high school -- she was my grammar teacher -- and she would give this a hearty Amen.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yep.

K.C. Wright: I'm in it to win it. Change starts now.

Jennifer Rothschild: See? And all of us will benefit. And the Grammar Girls are, like, breaking out in sweat, they're so excited right now. They're like, oh, my gosh, this is one of your happy moments. I get it, Grammar Girls.

So, K.C., you either need to stay singular with "you," or you need to say, "you and me," which we think sounds weird. But you know why you do that, right?

K.C. Wright: Yes.

Jennifer Rothschild: "Sets you and me" -- you would take out the first word, and whatever sounds right. Because you would never say "sets I up," you would say "sets me up." That's the rule.

K.C. Wright: Okay. But I'm just curious and almost concerned about the people that take the time to --

Jennifer Rothschild: I know.

K.C. Wright: -- email --

Jennifer Rothschild: They're very concerned.

K.C. Wright: -- a podcast.

Jennifer Rothschild: They're very concerned.

K.C. Wright: I mean, wow.

Jennifer Rothschild: They care about good grammar.

K.C. Wright: I don't have that time.

Jennifer Rothschild: I know. Well -- and if you do, you better do it with good grammar. That's all I'm going to say.

So we hear you, those of you who have been concerned --

K.C. Wright: Yes, we hear it.

Jennifer Rothschild: -- and we appreciate it, and we are learning, and we are moving on. You and me are moving on. We are moving on.

Speaking of moving on, my friend, K.C. -- now I know I've made you paranoid. And you don't need to be because we have grammar grace, don't we? Yes.

K.C. Wright: Grammar grace?

Jennifer Rothschild: We have grammar grace.

K.C. Wright: Oh, my goodness, I love that.

Jennifer Rothschild: But would you introduce Sara for us.

K.C. Wright: I would be honored to. Sara Hagerty is a best-selling author and Jesus follower. She has written four books, including her most recent release called "The Gift of Limitations: Finding Beauty in Your Boundaries." She lives in the Show Me State of Missouri with her husband, Nate, and seven children.

Jennifer Rothschild: When did she have time to write anything? I don't know.

K.C. Wright: Let's just pause and calmly think about that. All right? But here's a wonderful conversation between Sara and Jennifer, just for you.

Jennifer Rothschild: And me.

K.C. Wright: You.

Jennifer Rothschild: That was correct.

Sara, I am anxious to talk to you because the title of your book caught my attention. You're calling this "The Gift of Limitations." A lot of people don't think of limitations as a gift. So let's start right off with this. What in your life has happened or is happening that introduced you to your limitations and made them feel like they might be a gift instead of a curse?

Sara Hagerty: Well, I think I got introduced to my limitations early in life, in my 20s, you know, the years where you think you're just going to grow upward and onward. I know for you, this probably happened earlier than your 20s, but in my 20s, I hit just my first real hard. My husband and I walked through a long -- very long season of infertility and I lost my dad to a very fast-growing brain cancer. And so I started to realize, oh, the dreams and visions that I had for my life, that I thought were God's for me, are looking quite different, so what do I do? And then I traveled with the Lord over two, three, four more seasons of life where I felt extremely limited in different ways, and I started to see a theme. Maybe I am not going to live the life of my dreams, but can I still find God here was the big question.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah. And that's the question that we're going to answer over these next few questions. Because I think what you just said -- you touched on a few things that a lot of us can relate to. Losing someone we love, having a dream that we thought would come to fruition, we lose that dream. And so it is in many ways learning to live with loss.

Now, sometimes, though -- okay? Maybe someone's listening and they're like, well, maybe this conversation isn't for me because I haven't lost anyone I love, or my life is -- like, I'm 100%, everything's awesome. So let's go to something that maybe someone can relate to. Okay? I know you had heat stroke. All right? So I want you to kind of just go there. How did heat stroke show you something about limitations?

Sara Hagerty: Yes. I think we live limited way more than we actually name or recognize, but we react to our limitations. I would say all of us probably all day long.

So I had this heat stroke, and it became kind of a picture to me of what I do with my life. I was determined to win this race. This was a long time ago.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah. You're a runner, right?

Sara Hagerty: I'm a runner, but I was more in the peak of my running. And it was just a local race, it wasn't -- you know, it wasn't going to show up on anybody's radar. But I had run it before and placed and so I thought, I think I could win this race. And so I had somebody train me for a summer to prepare to win this local race. And I went into race day, and it was ten degrees hotter on race day than it had been the entire summer, which is not insignificant for somebody who's a runner and used to running in a certain kind of temperature. We also got up to the starting line, and I looked around and there were more than just the runners that I'd seen in years past. There were some Olympic trialers at this race.

Jennifer Rothschild: Ooh.

Sara Hagerty: And so I should have really quickly realized I'm not going to win this race, but I was, like, so determined I'm still going to win this race. So I have my splits on my hand. If you're a runner, you know you write the times that you want for each mile on your hand. And it's ten degrees hotter, and these women are clearly going to be way faster than I am. And I did not let go of my goal. So I just kept pushing, pushing. And my body was giving me all these sorts of signs that I could not actually keep at the pace that I was running, but I ignored them all until eventually, you know, maybe a half a mile before the finish line I had a heat stroke. And as I researched heat strokes afterwards, I realized there's kind of a psychological element that happens where runners really do ignore all the warning signs their body tells them to stop or to slow down and then they expose themselves to just a total body shutdown.

And I thought to myself, this is a picture of what I do in a lot of my life, where I fix my eyes on what I want. And a lot of times it's good and godly and beautiful things. And then I ignore the limitations I have around me, or the warning signs I might have that I might not get that thing. I pray harder, I become more determined. I work tirelessly until finally -- and I've had it in several seasons -- something reveals to me this may not actually be the goal of God for me. And I've ignored every sign he's given me to surrender, essentially, until my body chooses to surrender on itself.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah. Until it's smarter than you are.

Sara Hagerty: Right. Good. Well put.

Jennifer Rothschild: You know, I can really -- sadly, I can relate to this. In fact, I compare me and K.C. that I'm the Pitbull. Once I get my teeth on something, there is no way. I will die before I will let go of it. And he's like the happy Labrador Retriever that's like, no, let's just play, you know.

Sara Hagerty: That's so funny. We actually call my husband the Retriever also.

Jennifer Rothschild: I love it. I love it.

Sara Hagerty: I guess Labradors need to find Pitbulls, right?

Jennifer Rothschild: Right. Well, and there are -- like you said, there are times we need to be a Pitbull, put our teeth on something and you do not let go. But not at the expense of ignoring what God may be showing us. And part of that is not just our desire, but maybe just a sense of idealism. So I know that you've written about this. So my question is, why do you believe that idealism has had a negative effect on you?

Sara Hagerty: You know, I think as believers, we are oriented towards the ideal -- which is a really beautiful thing -- that God has oriented us towards looking -- we have eternity set in our hearts. But I think the way that that plays out in our day-to-day is sometimes we hold on to our ideals more than what's actually in front of us. You know, the actual definition of idealism is holding on to an ideal or holding on to an idea and letting that trump what you see right in front of you. And I've seen that happen in my parenting, in my marriage. I've seen it happen in my goals for my writing, I've seen it happen in my physical health, where I have an idea of what a certain season of life should look like and I'm going to get that, darn it. Like, I am going to -- at the expense of the people around me, at the expense of all the signs in my life that perhaps that isn't actually what God wants for me.

You know, I think right now -- I have a large family. I have seven kids, four of whom were adopted and have had some significant childhood trauma. And yet I at times will revert to the ideals that I created in my early 20s from reading books and attending parenting classes about what my family was going to look like. And I will -- I mean, I could even run over my kids to reach for that ideal because I keep wanting that picture of my life instead of the picture that God has given me, instead of the life that God's -- you know, I use the example in the book that we keep our eyes over the fence line and we oftentimes miss the soft grass underneath our feet, the willow tree in our yard, the robin in our yard. We miss the beauty that's right in front of us because our eyes are so determined to have what's on the other side of the fence. And I think idealism can do that to us.

Jennifer Rothschild: It's an interesting balance. Because you're speaking of being present where you are, yet at the same time you don't want to live lesser, don't want to compromise striving for what God has. That's a hard balance. Like, how do you figure that out, Sara?

Sara Hagerty: You know, I think self-awareness is a key. And I think it's a really underdeveloped resource in all of us. Many times we react to our limits. I'm feeling subtle dissatisfaction because I want more free time, I want more time to do my kinds of things. I want more rest, I want more peace, but I have seven kids. And so throughout my day, I'm kind of reacting to that. I'm cynical, I'm grumpy, I'm snapping at my kids or at my husband. For all of us, I think we have something that we are -- a limitation that we're frustrated with, that we're reacting to, but we've never named.

And I think there's a significant value that each one of us has in naming our limitations. Not just ignoring them and reacting to them and working around them, but saying, You know what? I'm actually not getting the career advancement that I really wanted at this stage. And I'm exhausted because I keep trying to reach for it, and this is actually really hard. So I think there's a key to naming the limitation and giving ourselves permission to grieve it, to actually go, This is hard. Sometimes we talk ourselves out of temper tantrums because we don't want to be like a two-year-old, but we get -- the psalmists gave us lanes for our emotions. The psalms are filled with emotions. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Psalm 22. God gave us lanes for our emotions, and I think some of us just need permission -- it's okay for you to name the limitation that you've been spending a lot of your day trying to overcome, to grieve it, like, really sit in the grief of it, and then to move into a place where you might go, God, is your story for me different than the story I'm convinced that I thought was your story for me?

Jennifer Rothschild: Well, you just touched on where I was going next, and that is grief. Because I do think that -- well, until you name it and acknowledge it, you can't really grieve it.

Sara Hagerty: Absolutely.

Jennifer Rothschild: So does grieving -- I think some people are afraid to do that because they think grief is a dead end. And so talk to us about how when we acknowledge our limits and we actually grieve them, how that does not lead to greater despair. How does that lead to healing?

Sara Hagerty: You know, there's a phrase in the adoption world, working with children, that is "name it and tame it," which means our emotions. Name those emotions and tame them. I think we have a fear that if I give permission to emotion, it will overwhelm me. I will be Eeyore for the rest of my life and I'll never get out of this hole.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Sara Hagerty: When in actuality -- and I would say some of us just need permission to experiment. The emotions that we have worked so hard to tamp down, really, once we give them a name, once we give them a voice, they help grow us. God is an emotional being. Jesus wept. He turned over the tables in the temple. He had big emotions. And we were created in his image. And I think some of us just need to have permission and also to be willing to experiment this emotion that's really driving me. And the reason I know it's driving me, because I'm really cynical. You know, cynicism, sarcasm, grumpiness, all that, those are byproducts of bottled emotions. So I'm going to actually give myself permission to feel it and I'm going to experiment and see what happens when I sit in these feelings with God, when I bring them to God. And I would guess that 99.9% of us would start to find the relief that we've really been thinking would come if we overcame our limitations, but the relief that could come if we're not overcoming them because God's met us in the big emotions from not having what we want.

Jennifer Rothschild: Ooh, Sara, that is so good. And hard.

Sara Hagerty: Oh, so hard.

Jennifer Rothschild: It's not easy. And you've even written about that, obviously, that you've avoided those big emotions in your life. So when you are in that season where you were avoiding naming the big emotions in your life, how -- you know, you mentioned cynicism. Did it also show up with you physically at all in your health or was it just in emotional responses?

Sara Hagerty: Absolutely. I think our bodies tell us a story. And I think sometimes we need to maybe broaden our understanding of how God moves and works to see that he uses our bodies to speak to us. And I say that not to, oh, those people out there. That's myself. My body has been telling me a story for a long time, and I like to ignore it, the headaches or the body aches or the frequent illness.

You know, I went through a long period of time -- and I write about this in the book, though I didn't know the diagnosis until after I finished the manuscript. But I went through a long period of time where I was getting sick every four weeks. It was like my body was saying, Sara, pay attention to me. I mean, it was really God saying through my body. But, you know, I'm praying to be healed. And I'm not saying that God doesn't want to heal us. I do believe God desires our healing. And I also think he uses our bodies to tell us a story we won't pay attention to in our hearts and our minds. And it wasn't until after I turned the manuscript in that I learned that I had Lyme disease. And it was so interesting for me to go -- oh, I too am on a long journey of learning what it means to give my emotions permission to be with God, to be expressed so that they don't have to show up in my body to the degree that they are.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah, because they will show up. They've got a mind of their own. And I think there's a book out there even called "The Body Keeps the Score." And it does.

Sara Hagerty: Yes. It's a great book. I love that book.

Jennifer Rothschild: It is a great book. I'm with you. And so I hope that as we're listening to this conversation, it's very clear what some of the ancillary gifts of limitations really are.

And so one of the things I think we do, though, Sara, when we sense our limitation -- sometimes we avoid naming it. But sometimes we just run faster. We're like, well, if I just -- like what happened with you with your race and the heat stroke. So I'm just going to become more productive. Sometimes that is an active way of repressing what we're dealing with, but sometimes we don't even know we're doing it. We just kind of just decide to speed along faster.

So you talk about having a productivity fast. Now, for the productivity junkies out there, they're breaking out in hives. So I want you to talk to us about what a productivity fast is and how it helped you.

Sara Hagerty: Well, I will just say first, you know, when I am furiously cleaning out my closet --

Jennifer Rothschild: Oh, Lawd, don't talk about this, please. Can we move on?

Sara Hagerty: I know. I mean, my husband looks at me and he goes, "You have something going on on the inside, don't you?"

Jennifer Rothschild: Yes, same. I do that too.

Sara Hagerty: Yes. So I am somebody who loves being productive. And I noticed over a period of time that I like myself better when I'm more productive. And so I transfer that to God. You know, surely he must like me better when I'm doing better work for his kingdom, when I'm working harder. And so I'm starting to notice that, like, I -- my impression of myself I projected onto God, like, that must be his impression of me, and I was just tired. So I gave myself a little experiment. And I like experiments for short amounts of time because I feel like they can tell us something about ourselves and we don't have to feel committed for the rest of our life.

Jennifer Rothschild: Good word.

Sara Hagerty: It feels like it's a low-hanging fruit.

So I for a period of time said I'm going to take the most productive hours of my day and I'm actually going to vastly decrease my task list for that time and I'm going to do things that I can't even put in a category of being productive. I'm going to take walks outside -- not for exercise -- you know, I'm going to read poetry, I'm going to read literature. If I read my Bible, I'm not going to call it my quiet time. This is just me engaging with beauty during a time when I otherwise would be very productive.

And one of the things that I found was that I was very squirrely at first, because I really like the version of me that is productive. But then over time I started to notice, like, there is a whole side of God that I have not even brushed because I am working so hard for him and for me. And it did a number in my soul to just take a walk in the afternoon, to read poetry, to do things that I couldn't then put on some spiritual CV, Look what I did, God.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yeah.

Sara Hagerty: Right? And I started to just find myself coming alive. I mean, in some ways it's really -- this is the message of this book, that when we are limited, when we are not productive, when we aren't making a big dent in the Kingdom of God, how does God see us? And could it be that there's a lot of life and beauty and rest on God's chest right there?

Jennifer Rothschild: That's beautiful. That's such a good word for all of us. Because no matter what our temperament and personality, we all have this tendency. And I think it's such a good word. You're talking about not doing, but being. That's such a good word.

So I think that that leads to this, that I'm very curious about when I read about it. You talk about this cycle, the come, die, grieve, and live cycle. Okay. What is that cycle? Can you explain that?

Sara Hagerty: Sure. I think it is the picture of Easter Sunday. Or Easter weekend. I mean, that's kind of -- if I'm going to give it a shape.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay.

Sara Hagerty: If we look at Easter weekend, we have Jesus' death on the cross. And we know that we've been invited. We know because of what Matthew tells us, for whoever will lose their life will save it, and whoever will save their life -- whoever will lose their life will save it, whoever will save their life will lose it. We know that, that we've been invited to take up our own cross. So there is Good Friday, which is Jesus carrying the cross, the death of his life.

And then there's this Saturday that we don't really often talk about, where the earth to me felt dark. And there were no answers, and many of Jesus' followers were bereft. What did we just sign up for and he's gone? Unto this glorious resurrection, right? And I think in our own lives, the Lord gives us this cycle many, many times where he brings us to something that ultimately is a cross to bear in our lives, a not yet. I know you want this and I'm going to ask you to carry it and put it on the cross. I'm going to ask you to carry it and put it to death.

So we have something in our life -- you know, I think of something in particular that's very good and godly and beautiful that I've been praying for for years. I write about it in the book very vaguely because it's probably too personal to be outside the pages of my journal. But we are invited then to let it go, to let it die, to put a nail in it and say, Gosh, this seems good and right and holy and I'm going to let it die. And then all of us, if we're willing, can experience that very painful Saturday of going, What in the world is my life like without this goal or dream or vision I've been reaching for?

And I don't want to gloss over the fact that I think that can be terribly painful, but yet also very productive in our life with God, and a different kind of productive than we just talked about, meaning productive like God doing a very deep work in us when we are willing to surrender a dream that it's clear he's asking us to lay down. And we grieve it with him and talk about the little girl inside of us or the little boy inside of us that desperately wanted that and doesn't have it. And who does she go to, and where does she go, but there's room on his lap for her. And then ultimately, I think the -- that's come, we come to Jesus. We die, we grieve the loss, we grieve the limitation.

But then on the other side of it, there is the offer of a new dream, of a new way of seeing things, of a new story that God has for us that's maybe different than the story that we thought we had. But it is that Galatians, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free," much more freeing than trying to work all of our energy towards reaching this goal that we just couldn't reach.

Jennifer Rothschild: You know, everything you have talked about, I keep hearing this undertow carrying the conversation of humility. It's humility and trust. It's the example of Christ, not my will, but yours. It's the words of John, that I might decrease, Lord, and you might increase. And I don't think we can live this way and experience and unwrap these gifts of limitations without humility, without surrender, without trust. So that's such a good example, I think, that you're setting in the book.

We're going to get to our last question, though. Because I think what I want to confirm with our listeners -- I know the answer, but I kind of want you to give us an ending how to this question. So I'll just ask it this way. Is it possible to find a balance between having and holding on to hopes and dreams and at the same time acknowledging our limitations? And if that is possible, how do we balance that?

Sara Hagerty: Yes, it's possible. And I would call that, I think, deep maturity in God. It's something that I'm reaching for in my life, that I would be at a place where the Lord might plant a dream in my heart and I would go after it with my whole heart. And there might be some other area of my life that I'm certain is a dream and I would be willing to lay it down. I feel like that question gets at the nuance of walking with God, that there are some things -- I would say for listeners right now, there's some things in your life that he might be saying, Lay it all down and run after this thing. Like, run after it with all your heart and your mind. And there might be other things in your life where he's saying, You thought this is what you came for and I'm asking you to surrender it.

So I think there is the ability for us to do both, but I think it requires a connectedness to the heart of God and an awareness of ourselves to know what's my motive for this. Because some of us are running very hard after something that we're calling the dream of God's heart for us, but really underneath it we're scared out of our minds that if we don't get it, we don't know who we are or we don't know what life will look like. And those are the things maybe that God's saying, Could you let it go? And there are other things that some of us are scared to actually pursue, and God's saying, Go after it.

K.C. Wright: All right. For those of you who do want a list -- you productivity junkies --

Jennifer Rothschild: I'm one.

K.C. Wright: -- here you go. Okay? Here's the list. Stay connected to God. Be self-aware. Name your emotions. I've done that a couple times. Don't fear your emotions. Name them. Give them to God. Pay attention to how you feel, body and emotions, because this is maturity in Christ. He will guide you and he will carry you.

Jennifer Rothschild: Okay, that was a good list.

Well, as Sara wrote in her book, If we do not name our limits, we live captive to them. Ooh.

K.C. Wright: Oh, man. So clearly, you and I need this book. I'm so terrified to say the word "I" anymore.

Jennifer Rothschild: I know. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

K.C. Wright: So clearly, I need a grammar class. Ms. Kupfer's in retirement, though, and she's in real estate. Okay.

So clearly you need her book. And we all do. We are giving one away on Jennifer's Insta at @jennrothschild right now. Go there to enter to win a copy of Sara's book. Or you can simply get there through the Show Notes at 413podcast.com/317. And you will also find a transcript of this entire conversation right before your eyes right there.

Okay, our friends, we're so happy you hung out with us, and we're so happy Sara did too. Remember, you can unwrap the gift of limitations because you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. I can.

Jennifer Rothschild: I can. And you can.

K.C. Wright: You can.

Jennifer Rothschild: Yes, you can.

My English teacher was named Ms. Martinez. And I had a healthy fear of her because, like, she was so good. But you know what? Here I am, a published author, and I want to say way to go, Ms. Martinez. You did a good job.

K.C. Wright: Mrs. Kupfer is my friend on Facebook, and there has never been one post that I've made that I don't think, how will she respond to this? Is this written well for Mrs. Kupfer?

Jennifer Rothschild: The power of the English teacher.

K.C. Wright: Ignore all the thousands of friends, but I'm just concerned about Mrs. Kupfer's approval all these years later.