Shelby Monjure, Ultrasound tech of the future...

Meet Shelby Monjure. Shelby works at the Keli-Mart, the only store---no, make that the only business in Elk City, Kansas. She is a pretty, seventeen year old young lady in a little crossroads community where all roads lead out, but that no one wants to leave. Except Shelby, that is.
Smalltown living has its charms, and she readily admits to liking Elk City, a step smaller than Longton, where she lived previously, a short 13 miles up the road and where she still attends school. Students in Elk City get a choice---they can go to Longton, or they can go to Independence.
The Keli Mart is owned by a family friend. On the day I passed through, Shelby was working alone and I asked her if I could charge my phone for a while and that I would buy something. “You don’t have to,” she said. I did anyway.
While I was waiting for my phone to charge, we talked about Elk City, in between a slow but steady stream of customers coming in for snacks. Keli-Mart isn’t a big place and other than gas and a few menu items, snacks is about all that most folks come in for.
I asked Shelby what her dreams were. She seems to know exactly what she wants to do---attend KU and become an ultrasound tech. “I’m a medicine and science geek,” she informed me. After a question about travelling and seeing the world, she said, “I want to travel but first I need to get set in my career, and I want to be a mom, and then I’ll see about travelling.”
I asked her what young people do for fun around Elk City, which is impossibly small. She is in a Babe Ruth Softball League and pitches, after being a shortstop most of her life. Other kids aren’t as wholesome and are into smoking weed and getting in trouble. Prescription drug abuse is a big problem in the Elk City area, and meth is becoming a problem as well. Just that day the police were questioning everyone in sight after a farmer was robbed of a type of fertilizer that is used in the manufacture of the drug.
So, it looks like Shelby Monjure is going to be okay. Some of the customers her age that came in, I am not so sure about, from the dead looks in their eyes. We talked about how education is so important. I likened it to horses and cattle. As I walk, whenever I encounter a group of cows, they just….stare blankly, and chew. So do a lot of the uneducated kids I see…stare and chew tobacco.
Horses, on the other hand, are smart animals, and when I walk by they run up and want to see exactly what I am up to. Smart people are inquisitive as well, and Shelby Monjure is certainly in that group. If I ever need ultrasound, and am in the Elk City, Kansas area...