Speaker's Corner

My husband and I are preparing to visit family back in our home state of Kansas.  It is an exciting but daunting prospect.  I am always nervous about running into people with which I went to high school.  In high school, I was the weird, artsy, semi-smart student in a class of 40ish kids. After graduation, I didn't go to college.  I, instead, became a mother.  I found out I was pregnant three weeks before graduation--I received confirmation from the doctor's office on the pay phone at school.  I tried not to tell anyone until after graduation, but it came out at lunch one day.  Consequently, I am remember by my peers as the weird, artsy, teenage mother-to-be.  I am still fighting the shame of that title, all these years later.  Right after high school, everyone left town to go to college.  I stayed and took classes at a local college  (a lot like Granite State College) and worked my part-time pizzeria job.  The best part of my days were my classes in the evenings.  I could stretch the brain muscles that my job didn't need, and those classes made me want more.   There was no such thing as online classes for adults back then, and my options were limited by my location. When I finally moved away to go to college it was terrifying and liberating at the same time, but I was brave enough and wise enough to know that, if I was going to do this, I was going to do it well--and I did.  If I hadn't pursued my education and career advancement the way I have I am sure I would never go back to my hometown, except maybe for my parents funeral. 
I was never a popular girl in high school, but lucky for me most of life happens after high school, and those experiences form a sort of lifelong learning college that helps me expand and grow each day I am in the world.