Dear Reader:
The nicest thing about growing older… is finally liking ourselves for who we are. This huge benchmark doesn’t appear automatically… it takes lots of detours and dead-end paths to finally become who we always were… an unique human being with a gift to leave behind after our short visit to life here on earth.
What made me re-think my path to self-acceptance was found in an old Junior High yearbook. I was at Horace Sisk Jr High… a new school built over the summer -far outside my more familiar neighborhood schools in Fayetteville North Carolina… it was the sixties and bussing ( as part of the new Civil Rights bill) was now in place.
By junior high… I knew I loved history, reading, and writing. But at twelve… I had no concept of how these subjects were pushing me towards my own individual path into the future.
I didn’t have my braces yet and so I was always lip smiling slightly in all my school pictures. I felt ugly and wanted to be popular like the cute girls with beautiful straight teeth or popular braces. I just had buck teeth.
But then one picture stopped my browsing… it was a picture of the seventh grade chosen superlatives, alongside my favorite teacher, Mrs. McBride. I glanced and then glanced again… there I was with my lip smile and I was holding my plaque that read: Most Likely to Succeed. Me? No way! I was a loser! A reject! That couldn’t be right.
Suddenly, now in hindsight, that shy twelve year old Becky’s eyes were open… what I remembered feeling about myself at that age and what others thought were worlds apart.
By the time we moved a year later to Laurens, new braces and all… a new me showed up my freshman year… a wonderful English teacher, took me under her wings and convinced me that I needed to continue my creative writings into the future.
So I ended up teaching history ( one love) coupled with storytelling creative lesson plans ( my other love) supplemented with my writings ( my last love.)
My path took me where I belonged for over three decades… and then miraculously I overcame a potentially life/threatening cancer … which in turn challenged me to finally share my stories and writings with you… the beautiful universe-come full circle!
I met many ” nay-sayers” along the way but learned the hard way to stay true to myself and look for the “bread crumbs” God leaves behind …for us to follow …down our personal path.
So until tomorrow…
Today is my favorite day -Winnie the Pooh
ichaseferalcats
John Turner
Legally Ohm
Becky Dingle
❤️
I just have one thing to say, I for one am so glad the Lord pushed you back to your creative writings, even though you were practicing for the Teaching History. I love your writings and my day wouldn’t be the same if I couldn’t read your writings. It is so true when we grow older how you can see mistakes, we made, victories we celebrated, the love we shared with others. You get a nice picture of where you have been, where you seem to be going. Me, I thought when we moved from North Charleston area, Charleston Heights, more specifically Dorchester Terrace, my life was ending! I couldn’t believe my Parents wanted to move us all to Summerville. I was going into the 9th grade and remembered thinking why can’t they wait for 3 years so I can graduate High School?! I see now I would have missed so much! And I had a good many Girlfriends but I met the one and likely would have never met her if we hadn’t moved. I missed my friends I grew up with terribly at first, but soon made new friends and like those from Childhood the Summerville friends, so many are lifelong friends. Certainly my wife is one of those. We have been married 42.5 years now, had two beautiful children. One boy one girl, and seems the blessings just poured on me at an unbelievable rate. I worked at Bosch for nearly 30 years, met my Lord and Savior Heart to Heart and another whole Chapter opened in my life. I know now at least where my destiny will take me, and my life opened up from the point of being dipped in water and lifted up, I saw life in a whole new way. Isn’t it funny looking back how all the moves, the friends, all of it brings you where you should be as you age. Adds new meaning to all things change for the better, it was meant to be leaves as an adage, and becomes truth. I am glad our paths crossed and that you picked up your writings and we are the better for it all!
I will have to play catch up on reading your writings after tomorrow morning. I have surgery on my back tomorrow morning at 10:30, but I have to be there at 7:30 and I think that’s cruel they make you show up so much sooner. But I’ll catch up with you in the other side!
As usual Johnny… I loved hearing from you-your memories, your feelings and your true grit facing the future! Thank you for sharing!
Sent from my iPhone