By Denise Turney

Remember when we graduated from middle school? Didn’t we feel apprehensive and nervous about transferring into high school, wondering if older students would immediately accept and take us into their inner circles?

Growing Up on College Campuses

We may have lost our focus as to why we were in high school which, more than likely, was to learn facts, figures and information we were previously unaware of. But, it’s tough to not want to be popular, to have everyone support and be drawn to you when you’re in high school. Truth be told, even after we become an adult it can be tough to avoid focusing more on being popular or liked than to focus on fulfilling short and long-term goals.

It’s a reason we appreciate our friends, hanging out with them and sharing challenges and triumphs with them. In fact, although it might be rare, some of us maintain relationships with high school classmates throughout our lives. We mean it when we write things like “I’ll always keep in touch” or “Friends forever” in our closest friends’ high school annuals.

Then some of us, like Love Pour Over Me’s main character, Raymond Clarke, don’t meet our best friends until we step on a college campus. Like Raymond we may not go to college seeking out friends, but we bump into people like Anthony Thompson (an elite college football player), Patrick (a proud Mexican who’s majoring in criminal justice, a man who shares a similar childhood root with Raymond) and Doug (an international student from Italy) . . . and our lives change  . . . forever.

Before we know it we’re coming of age, growing up, all at college. We may feel in love with another person for the first time. We may even marry while we’re in college or soon after we graduate with college degrees. Or, like Raymond and his friends in Love Pour Over Me, more unexpected and harrowing events may shake up our lives, forcing us to look back at our former, younger selves as if the people we once were are mere strangers we passed in a hallway.

Either way, we can’t go back. We’re not at home anymore. We’re not in high school anymore. We’re growing up . . . hopefully in ways that won’t come back to haunt us years later. . . .

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You!