I'm longing for something tonight that may never be mine, but instead of baring my soul, I'll go back in time to Mrs. Landreth's classroom at NHS. I had several good teachers but she's the one who always pops into mind. She was stern because she was serious about our language. I had to be split from Ashley, one of us in the front and one in the back; then, Mrs. Landreth had my attention and me.
She might would be disappointed with my rustiness and continuous mistakes (so might Mr., Mr., ?....my summer school typing teacher. I still type way better looking at paper ,as I am now, than at a screen.) Anyway, Mrs. Landreth decided to put my chattiness to use. I must have been a Junior and went as a back up to compete in "Extemperoneous Speech" (when you throw together what you already know and speak flying by the seat of your pants) at Emory University and, by golly, I won 2nd.
She, my Mom, and a long list of others were, I'm sure, worried when I "got hitched" a month after graduating high school. I did go on to college, riding MARTA to GA State for a couple of years and did exceptionally well on all my papers, but got a little "slap on the hand" once for being too descriptive; I was a newlywed afterall ;)
I'll never regret choosing full time motherhood. Since school, I've always written letters (some unsent), especially when I'm exasperated or impassioned. I have barely legible notes tucked everywhere. Writing has lent itself to financial and legal dealings. One was playing hardball with Ford to force them to buy back our F250 Diesel under the Lemon Law because they surely didn't want to.
I had an offer to pair with an illustrator, Stephen Shumaker, and I let it pass, not inspired to pull things together. So now, here I am with almost 40 years of innumerable memories, people, beliefs, mistakes, and blessings to acknowledge and suddenly bursting at the seams to do so.
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