04/28/2026
GOD’S TIMING
By Madeleine Palomo
Co-Editor Wrangler Express
My name is Madeleine Palomo, co-editor of the Wrangler Express and cheerleader here at Cisco College. I am from Corpus Christi, and I graduated from Foy H. Moody High School in 2020. That makes me 24 years old and only a sophomore in college. Hear me out.
Graduating in a pandemic and having all my senior year rituals ripped away from me was never a part of my plan. However, things never go as planned and thank God they don’t. I probably never would have come to Cisco if they had.
I did attend college right out of high school. I received early admission to Texas A&M Corpus Christi, met every deadline for every submission needed, and I even was awarded an early admission scholarship. I did all of this in my fall semester of my senior year, and I felt so accomplished.
My biggest worry at that time was what I would wear to prom.
Fast forward to spring break, March 2020. Our spring break had a head start because we had senior skip day. I spent my senior skip day at school watching our baseball teams' home game. That was the last time I ever went to school, and I didn't even know it.
My spring break was extended due to Covid-19 cases at the local hospitals in Corpus Christi. My friends and I were so excited for an extra two weeks
Then, one of our friends contracted Covid-19. My grandpa got Covid-19. Covid-19 started to hit home, and things didn’t seem so perfect anymore.
Our school was put online for the rest of the year, and the entire world had officially gone into quarantine.
The next thing I knew prom was canceled and I was told I could only have two family members at my graduation. I knew all of this was to keep everyone safe. I was just so sad.
That summer after we graduated, the entire world was still in quarantine and school was still online. I started my freshman year of college, as a nursing major, from home. Everything online was so hard. Complications were always occurring, such as the Wi-Fi was out, my professor got Covid, too many people in the class had covid so class was canceled for a week, or the professor was just as frustrated as the rest of us because online college was so hard.
My biggest complication was that I was a nursing major. This was the first time ever in my life that I didn’t have it together. I wasn’t confident in my decision. I was majoring in nursing because I was always told that's what I should do.
By spring semester, I had made the decision to resign from Texas A&M Corpus Christi and go to work. I started to work, still with the desire for a degree and a possible college cheer career. I just did not know what to major in. I always joked that I would just major in cheer.
Two years had gone by since resigning from college. I really dived into work and made money to start my credit score, adult things. I also started working for a baseball organization, LB21. I grew up in the LB21 baseball organization watching my brother play, so working for them was inevitable.
I did not think of working baseball tournaments as work; it was just fun. I basically had been doing it since I was kid--I was just getting paid for it now. And that is when I figured it out.
In Corpus Christi we have a minor league baseball team that is affiliated with the Houston Astros, the Corpus Christi Hooks. I looked at their employment website and, God’s work, they were hiring in their team store. I applied and then waited a few days for a phone call that I eventually received for an interview.
I ended up being hired for the job, and it was the best thing that could have happened to me.
I prioritized The Hooks, but it wasn't just working in the team store. I discovered so many different departments that a minor league baseball field has like promotions, production, financing, ticket sales and then my favorites, administration and management.
I had a job that required me to be at the field all day, learn new things about how to run a field, and create relationships and connections with people, all while discovering what I was meant to do in life.
It only took 3 years.
After my first year at the Hooks, everyone on staff had become family and I was in my element.
My second year on staff was my brother's senior year in high school. He had been going on college visits to see where he would play baseball. His visit to Cisco, little did we know, changed both of our lives forever.
My brother is my best friend. I would always talk his ear off about how I knew a college degree was meant for me, and he always believed in me. So, when he came back from his visit to Cisco he insisted we both go and do it together. He promised me I would love it and that it was the perfect place to “lock in and get things done.”
I was so conflicted because it was mid baseball season for The Hooks and I had already made a name for myself with the organization. I did not know what they would say if I told them I was going away for college.
I prayed about it.
I knew exactly what I wanted to major in. I had nothing holding me back home. I had all the discipline and maturity in the world to actually do great. It was perfect timing.
When I let my managers know that this opportunity for me to go to college came about, they were super supportive and loved it for me. They put me on school leave and told me they would see me next summer.
Fast forward to April 2026, I have made the Dean's List every semester I have been here, and I made the Presidents List my freshman year. I have two years of collegiate cheer on my belt, and two times co-editor for Cisco’s social media. I will graduate with my Associate’s Degree in Kinesiology on May 1, and I will attend Abilene Christian University in the fall.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ does not do things for you on your timing; he does things on His. He does not put desires on your heart with no intention of fulfilling them. He protects you from things that would have destroyed you. He gives you a little brother that tells you to drop everything and go to the smallest town you have ever been to, and you go.
You go because it is never too late to fulfill your desires, and it may just be the best thing that ever happens to you.
