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* As part of her president's report to the West Virginia University at Parkersburg board of governors last week, WVUP President Torie Jackson read some of the results of an exercise in which students were asked to respond to the prompt "first generation." Some of those responses were truly inspiring. One example was "I'm the first person to attend college in my family. Not just my immediate family but my family as a whole. I hated high school so much....when I was 16 my mother told me I could drop out if I wanted to. I never did and kept going and eventually graduated. I had my oldest daughter very young and had to raise my sister due to my mother being an addict. I'm 31 and am 1 semester away from graduating with my Bachelor's degree. I've overcome a lot to be here. I'm immensely proud of myself. My 2 daughters will get to see me walk across that stage and know that anything is possible. You don't have to let where you came from define you." Others were just as filled with determination and hope. Families in the Mid-Ohio Valley face many challenges. The spirit revealed through WVUP's exercise lets us know we CAN overcome them -- and many are in that process right now.
* First responders; street and highways crews; electricity, telephone and internet line workers; health care workers and the many others who got to work as so many hunkered down during last week's winter storm deserve a huge round of applause. Thank you, folks, for being willing and able to brave the elements to take care of the rest of us and get us back to normal as quickly as possible.