The grey day is in anticipation for the rain coming tonight. It feels cold to me, a bit raw. My sister has snow. She says it has been snowing a while but not much has accumulated on the roads, and the grass is barely covered. Her weatherman says a big storm will hit them next week, could be as many as 8″. She can’t see the mountains. They are socked in. Happy May Day, Moe!

In the Globe this morning I read some college had its graduation yesterday thus ushering in the season of graduations. That brought back a jumble of memories. I remember my mother telling me that she and my father had never imagined they would have a child go to college. No one in the family had ever gone. I also remember my father telling me I’d have to transfer from my college to a state school if my brother wanted to go to a private college as I had. He told me my brother would have to support a family so he should get the better education. That struck me to the quick because he wasn’t considering me. He was considering the role of women and throwing me into the mix, but it wasn’t an out of the blue idea for my dad. His generation believed women stayed home and men worked, but I knew I’d never have to transfer. I knew my brother better than my father did.

When I was a senior in college and the future loomed, I started to make choices. My first choice was always the Peace Corps for as long as I could remember. My second choice was law school, and my final choice, my back-up, was teaching. First I filled out and sent the Peace Corps application. I then took the LSAT. I did well and applied to a few law schools. Suffolk accepted me. I told my father about law school and wanted to know if he would help me pay for it. No was his answer. He said law was not for women. I hated his mind set, but I was okay with the no. In January I was accepted to train for Peace Corps. I called Washington right away and accepted the invitation. I then had my mother tell my father. It was cowardly, no question about it. He forbad me to go. I would have chuckled when he said it, but that would have made his veins pop in anger. A few months later my dad told me he and my mother had been talking, and they would be happy to help pay for law school. I recognized the offer for what it was and thanked him but said no.

In the spring I started to interview for teaching jobs just to go through an interview process. One interviewer told me they only hire teachers with masters. I told him that wasn’t true or he wouldn’t be interviewing any of us as we were getting our bachelor’s. I was totally frank with all my answers. I had nothing to lose. At the end of the interview he offered me a job. I admitted then I wasn’t looking for a job, just interview experience. I was going into the Peace Corps. He offered me his card and said call him when I got home. I didn’t.

If I hadn’t chosen Peace Corps, I would never have been a teacher. Of all the gifts those two years gave me, teaching was the ultimate. I had found the place where I fit the best and loved the most, the classroom.