My Five Successes

Originally Written Between 2016-2017                                      

 

 When Lyle announced the topic for today’s writing….. and said that we had to limit our successes to five….. well, I thought that I would have a hard time coming up with five!   And so, I started my list.  I have to admit that I did come up with more than five.  In keeping with the rules, I’ve decided to stick to five – for each decade!

 

Let’s start with ages 0 to 10:  My first success!  I was born 2 months’ early and weighed 3 pounds, 3 ounces and was 17 inches long.  The only “remedy” back in 1944 was to place me in an incubator for two weeks.  I survived.  I don’t remember much until first grade when I received the blue ribbon for printing.  When I was in 5^th grade, I learned how to roller skate and started teaching the little ones during the afternoon kids’ session.  At age 8, I started piano lessons and by the age of 10, played in my first “10 Piano Concert” at Northrup Auditorium.  Okay, that’s only four.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to make it up in the later decades.

 

Next.  Ages 10 to 20: Won 1^st place talent contest at school (played Red Balloons on the piano); first kiss at age 14; was the fastest typist in my class (110 words per minute); graduated high school (#13 out of a class of 129); started my first job at 3M and was promoted to work with the director of my department after one month; met Norm and got engaged at age 20.  

 

Then, ages 20 to 30:  Got married at 21; quit 3M and successfully gave birth to Michael, David, and John; moved from St. Paul to Spring Lake Park and got involved as a room mother at school, a den mother for each of my boys (2-year commitment for each equaling 6 years), and volunteered in the nursery and teaching 1^st grade religion at our church.

 

As I wrote these first few paragraphs, I started to realize that I wouldn’t normally call these “successes.”  To me, these are just a part of growing up.  Of being a kid, a teenager, and working person.  Then on to being a housewife and mother – doing all that is necessary to making a family successful.  In those days, (the ‘60’s and ‘70’s), men were considered the “head of the household” and earned a living to support the family that the women raised.  Women may have had “goals;” such as going to college or having a “real” career.  And, many of us did go to college – but after a short career, got married, and had kids.  Raising the family was our top job for many, many years.

 

But…. ages 30 to 40 was sort of a changing decade for me.  I had our last child – finally, a girl, (Rebecca) when I was 30.  Norm and I got involved in Marriage and Engaged Encounter and for the next several years, we were team members who led 17 weekends for married and engaged couples who were interested in improving their relationships.  For two years, we were the State Coordinating Couple for Engaged Encounter.

 

A side note:  Being a team member meant we had to write “talks” on various stages of marriage – learning to love yourself before you could love someone else, overcoming conflict, sexuality, etc.  This is when I noticed that I really liked to write.  I’d like to think that I can check off “writing career” as one of my successes.

 

Back to my 30’s and 40’s:  When Rebecca was 4 and the older boys were all in school, I decided to work at the school district coordinating their “pre-school screening program.”  In this way, I could bring Rebecca with me and she’d learn how to interact with other kids her age.  So, with my Encounter weekends and my part-time job, I discovered that I liked being in the outside world with responsibilities and challenges and working with other adults.  I found out that singing 50 rounds of the Alphabet Song every day did get a little boring and it was fun getting out of the house.

 

So – when Rebecca started Kindergarten, I took a job as an office temp at Medtronic.  I loved being back in an office environment and using my shorthand, typing, and organizational skills again.  I started to take classes at Anoka-Ramsey in order to learn more about Accounting, Business Law and Technology in order to receive a Certified Professional Secretary certification.  A CPS is the equivalent of a CPA in Accounting.  I consider my CPS as a huge success in my book.

 

After obtaining my CPS, I discovered that I almost had 90 credits at Anoka Ramsey.  That’s real close to a two-year degree.  So, I met with a counselor and we figured out how I could obtain an AA in Marketing.

 

I advanced to working with the Vice President of Worldwide Manufacturing at Medtronic.  I found I had to write speeches and articles for our department newsletter (in my boss’s name).  I liked the challenge and found I was good at it.  The thought of receiving my BA in Communications at Metro State University was constantly on my mind. So – after 9 years of taking one or two classes a semester, I received my BA one week before I turned 50!  All this while still being involved in church, Encountering weekends and going to each one of my four children’s football, baseball, basketball and tennis games.

 

My 50’s and 60’s brought a different set of successes – those of seeing my kids graduate from high school and college, attending their weddings, and, of course, spoiling our three grandsons.  We discovered traveling – especially cruising – and went on our 18^th cruise last September to celebrate 50 years of marriage.  Just think - 50 years spent with the love of my life and my best friend.  That’s what I call the best success of all.