Skip to main content

I DIDN'T GO TO COLLEGE

 I didn't have an opportunity to go to college but I would put my combined education from all these career choices up against almost anyone who did attend college.  By that I mean just the general knowledge one gains through advanced study which helps in your every day living or running a business, etc.   (not a medical or legal or specialized degree, etc.)  I went into all of them knowing nothing about the position and came out pretty knowledgeable. 

 

I’m nor knocking college and if there had been a good counselor at the high school when I was there, I would probably have tried to go.  I found out many years afterward that I had been awarded a National Merit Award scholarship but no one ever told me that, or encouraged me to follow up on it, and I didn't even realize that's what I was doing the morning I went to the school and took the test. I was the oldest child and raised by my grandparents who had no knowledge about the possibility of college for me, so I had no family encouragement, and I wasn’t in the inner circle or clique of those applying for and winning scholarships.  Things were much different in 1961 than they are now.  So many high school graduates didn’t go on to college, just got a job and moved on into life.  Plus Rice-Stix had just closed its doors and it appeared my grandmother would  be without a job, so my foremost concern was helping what I could with finances for the family.


But God in His wisdom always knows best and I gained tremendous knowledge from my years as a legal secretary.  Loved it, and John F. Low was an excellent teacher who taught me to love words, and how to write a professional letter, and all kinds of legal stuff like probate and real estate, etc.  He taught me to take pride in what I did.  No letter or legal document ever went out of his office over his name without him checking it with a fine tooth comb for grammar and spelling, sentence construction etc.  That has carried on through my life.  As a pastor, I never would let anyone do my church bulletins because so many people can’t spell and if my name is going to be on it, it is going to be perfect!   The newspaper editors I worked for soon found that out, also.  If you want to see me throw a fit, use affect instead of effect in a headline you write on my column.


I didn't know a thing about insurance when New York hired me but I qualified for the Million Dollar Round Table in a few years, the only Lebanon agent to do that for years


Nationally known Springfield attorney Dee Wampler mentored me in politics and writing as a columnist for a newspaper.  And I had good pastoral leadership who made sure I was in church every week and who taught me how to teach the Bible to others and gave me many opportunities to teach and stand in front of people and communicate well.


So I’ve been a lifelong student and still am, but I have had unbelievable mentorship and support along the way and for that I am most grateful.  And I’ve had the best husband and marriage and family anyone could possibly want.


© Joan Rowden Hart 2005

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COMMUNION ON THE MOON

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. (Melody Beattie) Americans need a day dedicated to gratitude. I have noticed that in the lineup of most of our holidays that Thanksgiving is perhaps the one least given over to secularism - the one we still observe in a traditional fashion. We need it to keep our focus clear and to teach our children what it means to be thankful for family, friendship and faith. We need a time to gather around the table with extended family and enjoy turkey and dressing and gravy, two kinds of potatoes, cranberries, hot rolls, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie and whipped cream. We need it, not for the calories, but to create an awareness that there are those who don’t have those blessings, because in the hectic pace of our everyday lives we tend to forget those in need. Family and food are important, but above all else, Americans need a rededication to our faith. Faith brought the pilgrims to the ne...
Post a Comment
Read more

Passion

  “Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age”..  (James Joyce) I’ve often been accused of being too passionate, of caring too much about certain things.  But I believe that  passion, also defined as fervor or zeal, is  one of the essential core values of human life, along with the Apostle Paul’s Biblical list of the virtues of faith, hope and charity.  Passionate people have strong opinions and usually articulate them very well.  We are also perfectionists, and we don’t handle incompetence in the public arena very well, all of which tend to preclude us from being the most popular person in the room.  I long ago accepted the fact that I won’t have the largest funeral in Lebanon, nor will my obituary make the front page. But not everyone seems to care that much about anything other than their own lives.  T.S. Eliot once said, “It is obvious that we can no more explain pas...
Post a Comment
Read more
  THE TASTES OF SUMMER Tender green onion blades,  tipped at the end With a white marble bulb, their flavors do blend With soup or a sandwich, I do recommend For these are the tastes of summer. Cucumbers growing green, awaiting their turn For slicing with vinegar and sugar, I yearn So cool and refreshing, my praises they earn These too are the tastes of summer. Sun ripened tomatoes, So juicy and sweet A smidgeon of salt, such a heavenly treat Just thinking of them makes my heart skip a beat A favorite taste of summer. Hot corn on the cob with the tantalizing name Of peaches and cream, it’s in my hall of fame From one end to the other of the cob I exclaim That this is the true taste of summer. Green beans, new potatoes, cooked up in a pan Just simmering slowly all day is my plan Some salt, bacon drippings, there’s no better than The taste of fresh beans in the summer. Green lettuce wilted down with some crisp bacon bits Add some vinegar, and sugar, it’s always a hit I have to a...
Post a Comment
Read more