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By Vicki Austin

So, let’s say there was this camel.

Yeah.

And the camel, well, she was pretty good at quietly crossing the desert, conserving the fat in her hump, making good camel decisions, even taking care of her body and knees better than a lot of the other camels.

You know, rest, good diet.

And then one day — my, I mean, the camel’s doctor was like, “Ah ha! Forty-nine years old, eh? It’s all downhill from here!”

The camel scoffed, picked up a few weights to carry around as she used to, and CRACK.

Camel’s body said WHAT?

Thus began the camel’s year-long balancing act at the very tippy top of trails labeled, ultrasound and MRI and thyroid malfunction and skin cancer.

You know what, though?

When pushed, some camels can learn to ski.

I’m — I mean, she’s — not too bad.

It just took a shove.

— Vicki Austin 

Vicki Austin, faculty at Wyoming Seminary College Preparatory School, lives with her family in Dallas, Pennsylvania. Vicki has almost 30 years of experience in many facets of education and is currently shifting her writing focus from persuasive to creative. Vicki’s most recent work has been featured on the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop blog, included in the online journals Projected Letters and Wraparound South and printed in The Walls Between Us: Essays in Search of Truth, a Juncture publication. You can find Vicki on Twitter @VickiAustin02 and send encouragement as she divides her limited writing time between a first novel and a book of poetry.