Me ~ Still Under Construction
“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.”
~
I learned to read at age two because, while I enjoyed having Dr Kangaroo read to me every weekday morning, I wanted to read to myself the rest of the day. I would read just about anything I could get my hands on. My brother and I were blessed with a Mom that would take us to the library every week and buy us a World Book Encyclopedia. I quickly evolved as a autodidact.
Between reading and watching TV, I developed an interest in becoming a doctor. My eight year old self would have told you that by the time I was all grown up I’d be a practicing neurosurgeon with a second specialty in psychiatry, which I would practice when I retired from surgery. Yes, I was precocious.
Just as Pausch said, “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted…” By the time I thought I was wall grown up, age 24 I had three semesters at the University of Tampa under my belt, been married to a Naval officer, moved to Hawaii, become a mother of three, the younger two were born at home, and all three were home schooled.
My life was one hundred and eighty degrees from a medical career, but the autodidact in me continued to thrive on gathering knowledge. Along the way, in addition to formally teaching my children, I taught myself to make furniture, became a master gardener, master needleworker (knitting & quilting), assist my master craftsman father restore the plasterwork in Atlanta, GA’s Fox Theater; I became an elite fitness trainer, studying under the man who headed up research and development for Nautilus gym equipment, owning a boutique fitness studio for eight years. SO much experience, I could fill a dozen web pages. I may not have gone to medical school, but in a pinch I can remove your appendix if you happen to need it.
At age twelve I decided I wanted to be an author and began a book on astrology, my deep dive topic of that year. And though I continued my attempt to write that book, I eventually gave up as there were too many books to yet read on the topic, too many rabbit trails to other topics to be followed, too many other topics I wanted to learn about. It never occurred to me I’d end up with degrees in fields that have given us great researchers and authors, with a ton of valuable experiences to share.
December 2018, University of Florida, B.A. in Sociology, Cum Laude. May 2021, University of South Florida, M.A. in Journalism. Sometime in 2024, Bay Path University, M.A. in Creative Nonfiction, Publishing
In addition to graduate school, life coaching, journaling, building a freelance business as a writer and editor, I decided to go back to writing one of the many books I’d like to finish, and hopefully get published.
With my Yorkie Kiki and MacBook in tow, I can often be found on Mad Beach playing fetch, writing, doing homework, or reflecting on how grateful I am is for everything life has and hasn’t brought me.