“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
Winter is still here. I have been hoping for a spring like day, but I’ll have to accept the disappointment. I did notice green shoots in the front garden. They are the start of my daffodils so I know spring is waiting in the wings. I’ll just have to practice patience and keep my fleece handy.
Nala makes a mess, several messes. She brings in pine cones and strips them then chews the core. She hauls in small branches and gnaws them into pieces. When she wants something from the toy basket, she pulls out every toy. They end up all over the hall. I am the cleaner. I am the maid.
When I was a kid, I had a bit of a plan for my life. I’d travel and see the world, but I had no places in mind. I just wanted to travel. I loved my town, and I loved roaming all over my town and even some towns around it, but I dreamed of more. My dreams did come true. I have always considered lucky in that respect.
Joining the Peace Corps was my biggest dream. I applied without telling my family because I knew my father would object. I decided to wait and tell him only after I was accepted. The time between submitting my application and hearing the result seemed endless. Just in case, I had a backup plan. I took the LSAT and was serious about law school if the Peace Corps fell through. I asked my father if he would help me pay for law school. He told me no. He told me law was not for women. I applied to schools anyway. After I had heard of my acceptance into the Peace Corps, I called my father and told him. He told me I couldn’t go. I told him I had already accepted. He was angry but only for a while. A month or two later, my father told me he and my mother had been talking, and he would be willing to help pay for law school. I thanked him but turned him down. I was onto his ploy to keep me out of Africa.
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February 25, 2024 at 4:27 pm
Hi Kat,
Today is another clear sky with a high of 86°.
I think you would have made an excellent attorney. Or, maybe a great politician. My father never told me I couldn’t become something when I grew up. My mother used to tell me, “If you become a pilot, I’m putting my head in the oven”. Of course I had to reminded her that we had an electric stove. 🙂 in those days Jewish mothers wanted doctors and maybe lawyers from their sons. “Oy my son the doctor”. 🙂
February 25, 2024 at 7:33 pm
Hi Bob,
Right now it is 28°. Tomorrow will be downright balmy at 45°. August,maybe for the 80’s here.
Thank you!! I had fully intended to go to law school after Peace Corps as the school was willing to hold my spot, but, instead, I found out how much I enjoyed teaching. I never regretted that choice.
My father was of the school that men were superior in many ways to women. I was going to an expensive college. My father told me if my brother wanted to go to an expensive school I’d have to transfer to a state school as he would have to support a family. I almost laughed in his face as my brother was a screw up who ended up going to the local community college from which he flunked out after a half year. Years later my father told me I was the most aggressive of his kids which to him was quite a compliment
February 25, 2024 at 8:31 pm
Sadly, men of his and my father’s generation had these old ideas. My father used to say that girls went to college to receive an, “Mrs. Degree”.
February 25, 2024 at 9:07 pm
My father did change over time. When the time of leaving came, he was amazing. I had been sent a bus ticket from Boston to Philadelphia by Peace Corps as I wasn’t far enough away for a plane ticket. He said no way was I taking a bus. He bought me a plane ticket. When I was in Ghana, he also wrote to me the neatest letters.