I’ve been in a reflective mood of late. No doubt triggered, in part, by my 50th high school reunion. I didn’t go, but the notice made me dig out my yearbooks to reread the autograph pages and pour over the senior pictures. We look so young–I guess half a century ago–we were!
I had a solid plan for my life. College where my dad went. Not marry until after med school. Then I’d save lives in between having three or four exceptionally gifted progeny. Yes, I was going steady but somehow everything would fit neatly into the plan. I was determined, unstoppable, positive, and headed for great things.
A month after graduation I broke up with my high school sweetheart. I went to college where my father did. I loved it–everything–except Chem 101. I hadn’t worried about the blood and guts part of medicine after assisting Daddy in small animal surgery. I’d done well in high school chemistry, one of only three girls in the class. It was a lot different sitting in a huge lecture hall with a miked up professor writing on a chalk board miles from you. Maybe I didn’t want to be a doctor…
I had a great roommate, also from a small town. We enjoyed all the social life college had to offer. The freedom of semi adulthood was overwhelming. After going three straight semesters, I was on academic probation. How could I tell my parents? No worries. The University saved me the trouble. Then, the person who paid the bill was entitled to know what was happening. Mother was livid I’d squandered the opportunity she’d never had. Daddy quietly confessed the same thing had happened to him. He found a way to turn things around and even go to veterinary school after getting married and starting a family. I had hope that my good genes would carry the day.
I needed a job. I did babysitting for one of the Animal Science professor’s kids and he had gotten me a student job keypunching feed records for graduate students. Armed with that skill I bravely applied for a keypunch position at one of the local hospitals. I got it! The hospital installed a new computer system with terminals on each unit and in each department. So I had another skill implementing systems and training people.
The day I was hired I stopped by the dorm to see my friend Susie. She wasn’t home but I ran into my future husband again. (Full details are in the August 2018 blog Meant for Me). Long story short, three years out of high school I married a man who planned to go to law school.
Suddenly, it was a big deal that I hadn’t finished my degree. I petitioned for special status to an understanding Dean who allowed me to work full time at the hospital and be a part time student–I carried a course load one credit short of full time. I had classes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings; worked Monday and Friday afternoons, and all day Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Wednesday afternoons I went to the laundromat and grocery store. My husband was a full time student with part time work fall and winter and two jobs every summer. We graduated in the same year, me with an undergrad degree and him with a law degree.
My hospital systems experience got me a job implementing systems on the vendor side. I moved from data processing to information systems to information services to information technology working in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Alabama. I enjoyed a forty-two year accidental career doing something I didn’t know anything about in high school..
Today, I’m sitting in the midst of all my creative tools: my spinning wheel; loom; tubs of unspun fiber; a computer and printer; and pens and paper. Rhett, the Basset hound, smiles down at me from the cover of Polly’s List high on a bookshelf. I’m pondering what the next decades will bring.
My life didn’t follow my carefully constructed plans…it has been infinitely better than anything I ever imagined! Wishing you better outcomes than you ever planned for! Enjoy!