Independent Writer
I wanted to be an archeologist because of a book I had read when I was about 10. That dream, and all of the others, is still alive in me to some extent. Any time I hear or read about a local �dig site�, especially if volunteers are wanted, I have the urge to go and spend as much time as possible helping. With bills to pay, a husband and son to take care of, it just has not been possible to drop everything and take off. I keep saying some day and know that I will make some day happen soon.
The accountant in me is slowly becoming less and less. I mainly wanted to become an accountant because of my father. I had the need to prove myself to him. Either every dream I have mentioned to him has been something I should not do, or something I can�t do, in his opinion. So, in high school, I took accounting and business law courses, and received a proficiency award for accounting. However, by the end of my senior year, there was no way I was going to go to college and continue with accounting. It just bored me working only with numbers, I needed more than that in a career.
The acting bug hit me in my freshman year of high school when I had to give a speech in an English class. I was not a shy person, but I hated the idea of getting up in front of the entire class and talking. The speech was to be a book review and the class could review any book, within reason of course. I have always been a reader of non-fiction books, and was currently reading a true crime book that could just turn your stomach, or at least make you wince. That is what I did my speech on, a book about a teenaged girl that gets a boy to help her kill her parents. That helped me see that I was a good speaker, and acting, for me, was a natural next step.
The singing has been with me for a long time. My mother had a bunch of 8-track tapes (do you remember those?) with the Statler Brothers, Frankie Vallee, and other 50�s and 60�s music and country bands. I also had a record player in my bedroom that I would sing to. Yes, this was a long time ago when I was only about 7 or 8 years old. Then in my junior year of high school, I was asked by a friend to be her back up when she performed a song for her choir class. That did it, I knew I wanted to sing! I was even asked by the instructor to join the acappella group at school the next year. Course requirements and other �dreams� got in the way and I had to decline, besides, I could always do it later in college. As you will see, that did not happen.
I got married right out of high school and did not continue my education, college was a few years away for me. I married my high school sweetheart the day after I turned 18. This is a long and sordid tale that belongs in another story alone, so some other time this will be explained. In the winter of 1990 my husband allowed me to follow my dream and attend college. I enrolled at the local community college and could not wait to start taking the different courses offered.
I carried a heavy class load, and loved it. I wanted to take as much as I could before my husband decided I could not attend any longer for whatever reason he might have. I took core classes such as math, English, history, and such, but loved to take business, astronomy, and even law. In college I learned as much as I could and studied as I never had before. I was on the Dean�s and President�s lists and very proud of myself. I fell in love with the law, and wanted to be a criminal attorney. I took the Intro to Criminal Justice course that was offered and received the only A in the class. I worked for it and I deserved it. This was it, I wanted to do this! I still would love to do this, become an attorney and work in the D.A.�s office on criminal cases.
This love has shown in much of the writing and in the research I have done over time. Not necessarily criminal law, but still law and the legal system. So when I was on the college newspaper my natural leaning was to writing about �legal� items. I first wrote about a new policy at the college. From that I received the title of �rabble-rouser� from my classmates, and yes I did love the title. My next article that I remember writing dealt with the possible release of convicted rapist Kevin Coe. My stepmother had worked with him and he had terrorized the South Hill in Spokane, Washington. I just could not see any reason in releasing him from prison. I voiced my opinion on that and many other things with the assistance of the school paper. After my article dealing with the new policy at the college, the paper had been shut done, and we had been told that we needed to have all future editions approved by the director. Well, that did not go over at all. The staff of the paper and many of the students complained, loudly, about this move by the director. Free speech was the battle cry, and yes, we did win.
Since the age of two or so, there has been one constant �dream� in my life, to own a horse and/or a horse ranch. I remember my mother telling me that when I was about two, I announced I was going to marry a farmer when I got older. My mother was a bit taken aback by such a strong statement from her little girl, and she asked me why. Of course, my logical thinking was that I had to marry a farmer so I could have a horse. Well, that is the thinking of a two year old. Since then, I have always wanted to have a horse. So here I am, 30 years older and still wanting to have a horse. I guess that is one of those dreams that I still have to work on.
I suppose I have done quite a bit, and more than many will ever do. Yes, I should be happy and I am. I have dreams that I can still accomplish and others that I have laid to rest with my youth. I am not old yet, and I hope that I will never be to old to learn, and share with others. I am writing now, as I have wanted to do for a long time. I have few regrets, but a life without any regrets is not a life I would want to have. Some day has arrived for some of my dreams, and I am doing what I can with others. To continue to try, and learn is what makes a person grow stronger. I am a very strong person.