{"version":"1.0","provider_name":"precious","provider_url":"https:\/\/precious.cafeblog.hu","author_name":"precious","author_url":"https:\/\/precious.cafeblog.hu\/author\/precious\/","title":"Late for School","html":"

\u3000\u3000All my life\uff0c I've had this recurring dream that causes me to wake up feeling strange\uff0e In it\uff0c I am a little girl again\uff0c rushing about\uff0c trying to get ready for school\uff0e \u3000\u3000\"Hurry\uff0c Gin\uff0c you'll be late for school\uff0c\" my mother calls to me weight lifting equipment<\/a>\uff0e I am hurrying\uff0c Mom\uff01 Where's my lunch? What did I do with my books?\" \u3000\u3000Deep inside I know where the dream comes from and what it means\uff0e It is God's way of reminding me of some unfinished business in my life\uff0e \u3000\u3000I loved everything about school\uff0c even though the school I attended in Springfield\uff0c Ohio\uff0c in the 1920s was very strict\uff0e I loved books\uff0c teachers\uff0c even tests and homework\uff0e Most of all I longed to someday march down the aisle to the strains of \"Pomp and Circumstance\uff0e\" To me\uff0c that song was even more beautiful than \"Here Comes the Bride\uff0e\" \u3000\u3000But there were problems\uff0e \u3000\u3000The Great Depression hit the hardest at large\uff0c poor families like ours\uff0e With seven children\uff0c Mom and Dad had no money for things like fine school clothes\uff0e Every morning\uff0c I cut out strips of cardboard to stuff inside my shoes to cover the holes in the soles\uff0e There was no money for musical instruments or sports uniforms or after\uff0dschool treats\uff0e We sang to ourselves\uff0c played jacks or duck\uff0don\uff0dthe\uff0drock\uff0c and munched on onions as we did homework\uff0e \u3000\u3000These hardships I accepted\uff0e As long as I could go to school\uff0c I didn't mind too much how I looked or what I lacked\uff0e \u3000\u3000What happened next was harder to accept\uff0e My brother Paul died of an infection after he accidentally stabbed himself in the eye with a fork\uff0e Then my father contracted tuberculosis and died\uff0e My sister\uff0c Margaret\uff0c caught the same disease\uff0c and soon she was gone\uff0c too\uff0e \u3000\u3000The shock of these losses gave me an ulcer\uff0c and I fell behind in my schoolwork\uff0e Meanwhile\uff0c my widowed mother tried to keep going on the five dollars a week she made cleaning houses\uff0e Her face became a mask of despair\uff0e \u3000\u3000One day I said to her\uff0c \"Mom\uff0c I'm going to quit school and get a job to help out dermes<\/a>\uff0e\" \u3000\u3000The look in her eyes was a mixture of grief and relief\uff0e \u3000\u3000At fifteen\uff0c I dropped out of my beloved school and went to work in a bakery\uff0e My hope of walking down the aisle to \"Pomp and Circumstance\" was dead\uff0c or so I thought\uff0e \u3000\u3000In 1940\uff0c I married Ed\uff0c a machinist\uff0c and we began our family\uff0e Then Ed decided to become a preacher\uff0c so we moved to Cincinnati where he could attend the Cincinnati Bible Seminary\uff0e With the coming of children went the dream of schooling\uff0c forever\uff0e \u3000\u3000Even so\uff0c I was determined that my children would have the education I had missed\uff0e I made sure the house was filled with books and magazines\uff0e I helped them with their homework and urged them to study hard\uff0e It paid off\uff0e All our six children eventually got some college training\uff0c and one of them is a college professor\uff0e \u3000\u3000But Linda\uff0c our last child\uff0c had health problems\uff0e Juvenile arthritis in \u3000\u3000her hands and knees made it impossible for her to function in the typical classroom\uff0e Furthermore\uff0c the medications gave her cramps\uff0c stomach trouble and migraine headaches\uff0e \u3000\u3000Teachers and principals were not always sympathetic\uff0e I lived in dread of the phone calls from school\uff0e \"Mom\uff0c I'm coming home\uff0e\" \u3000\u3000Now Linda was nineteen\uff0c and still she did not have her high school diploma\uff0e She was repeating my own experience\uff0e \u3000\u3000I prayed about this problem\uff0c and when we moved to Sturgis\uff0c Michigan\uff0c in 1979\uff0c I began to see an answer\uff0e I drove to the local high school to check it out\uff0e On the bulletin board\uff0c I spotted an announcement about evening courses\uff0e \u3000\u3000That's the answer\uff0c I said to myself\uff0e Linda always feels better in the evening\uff0c so I'll just sign her up for night school\uff0e \u3000\u3000Linda was busy filling out enrollment forms when the registrar looked at me with brown\uff0c persuasive eyes and said\uff0c \"Mrs\uff0e Schantz\uff0c why don't you come back to school?\" \u3000\u3000I laughed in his face\uff0e \"Me? Ha\uff01 I'm an old woman\uff0e I'm fifty\uff0dfive cuboid mini kit<\/a>\uff01\" \u3000\u3000But he persisted\uff0c and before I knew what I had done\uff0c I was enrolled for classes in English and crafts\uff0e \"This is only an experiment\uff0c\" I warned him\uff0c but he just smiled\uff0e \u3000\u3000To my surprise\uff0c both Linda and I thrived in evening school\uff0e I went back again the next semester\uff0c and my grades steadily improved\uff0e \u3000\u3000It was exciting\uff0c going to school again\uff0c but it was no game\uff0e Sitting in a class full of kids was awkward\uff0c but most of them were respectful and encouraging\uff0e During the day\uff0c I still had loads of housework to do and grandchildren to care for\uff0e Sometimes\uff0c I stayed up until two in the morning\uff0c adding columns of numbers for bookkeeping class\uff0e When the numbers didn't seem to work out\uff0c my eyes would cloud with tears and I would berate myself\uff0e Why am I so dumb? \u3000\u3000But when I was down\uff0c Linda encouraged me\uff0e \"Mom\uff0c you can't quit now\uff01\" And when she was down\uff0c I encouraged her\uff0e Together we would see this through\uff0e \u3000\u3000At last\uff0c graduation was near\uff0c and the registrar called me into his office\uff0e I entered\uff0c trembling\uff0c afraid I had done something wrong\uff0e \u3000\u3000He smiled and motioned for me to have a seat\uff0e \"Mrs\uff0e Schantz\uff0c\" he began\uff0c You have done very well in school\uff0e\" \u3000\u3000I blushed with relief\uff0e \u3000\u3000\"As a matter of fact\uff0c\" he went on\uff0c \"your classmates have voted unanimously for you to be class orator\uff0e\" \u3000\u3000I was speechless\uff0e \u3000\u3000He smiled again and handed me a piece of paper\uff0e \"And here is a little reward for all your hard work\uff0e\" \u3000\u3000I looked at the paper\uff0e It was a college scholarship for $3\uff0c000\uff0e \"Thank you\" was all I could think to say\uff0c and I said it over and over\uff0e \u3000\u3000The night of graduation\uff0c I was terrified\uff0e Two hundred people were sitting out there\uff0c and public speaking was a brand\uff0dnew experience for me\uff0e My mouth wrinkled as if I had been eating persimmons\uff0e \u3000\u3000My heart skipped beats\uff0c and I wanted to flee\uff0c but I couldn't\uff01 After all\uff0c my own children were sitting in that audience\uff0e I couldn't be a coward in front of them\uff0e \u3000\u3000Then\uff0c when I heard the first strains of \"Pomp and Circumstance\uff0c\" my fears dissolved in a flood of delight\uff0e I am graduating\uff01 And so is Linda\uff01 \u3000\u3000Somehow I got through the speech\uff0e I was startled by the applause\uff0c the first I ever remember receiving in my life\uff0e \u3000\u3000Afterwards\uff0c roses arrived from my brothers and sisters throughout the Midwest\uff0e My husband gave me silk roses\uff0c \"so they will not fade\uff0e\" \u3000\u3000The local media showed up with cameras and recorders and lots of questions\uff0e There were tears and hugs and congratulations\uff0e I was proud of Linda\uff0c and a little afraid that I might have unintentionally stolen some of the attention that she deserved for her victory\uff0c but she seemed as proud as anyone of our dual success\uff0e \u3000\u3000The class of '81 is history now\uff0c and I've gone on for some college education\uff0e \u3000\u3000But sometimes\uff0c I sit down and put on the tape of my graduation speech\uff0e I hear myself say to the audience\uff0c \"Don't ever underestimate your dreams in life\uff0e Anything can happen if you believe\uff0e Not a childish\uff0c magical belief\uff0e It means hard work\uff0c but never doubt that you can do it\uff0c with God's help\uff0e\" \u3000\u3000And then\uff0c I remember the recurring dream\uff0dHurry\uff0c Gin\uff0c you'll be late for school\uff0dand my eyes cloud over when I think of my mother\uff0e \u3000\u3000Yes\uff0c Mom\uff0c I was late for school\uff0c but it was all the sweeter for waiting\uff0e I only wish you and Dad could have been there to see your daughter and granddaughter in all their pomp and circumstance\uff0e<\/p>","type":"rich"}