5 Conversations for My Daughter

In less than 3 months my daughter, Sarah, will graduate from high school. Memories of her dancing and singing around our house and endless trips to Hobby Lobby to buy her paint supplies fill my heart.  In truth after watching my oldest son's adventures at college, I'm excited to see Sarah go as well.  But before she goes, I have a quite a few conversations I plan to have with her.  Here are 5 of them:

1. Wash Your Sheets at least once every other week.  I know that there are countless articles on how you should wash your sheets once a week.  But if I can get my now adult children to wash their sheets twice a month, I have accomplished something.  My oldest son went off to college and to this very day claims that he washed his white sheets.  However, he can't explain why they are not even close to that color now.  Wash your sheets!
   
   
2. Never Mix Household Chemicals.  Far too many people don't know how dangerous it is to mix household cleaning products.  You can cause a hazardous situation quickly by mixing household cleaners.  For example bleach and ammonia if mixed together can form toxic fumes.  So just don't mix chemicals.
   
   
3. Always Take a Buddy with you when you go anywhere at night.  We live in a broken, fallen world.  So we should all protect ourselves.  Be smart and take a buddy with you when you walk across campus at night or when you have to run to town.  One of the years I was in college there were multiple rapes on campus.  Many of them actually happened during the day.  So be smart and alert of your surroundings.  
   
   
4. Actions Speak Louder Than Words.  Not every guy that tells you he loves you does.  I remember when one of my aunts took me aside and said, "Remember this...guys lie."  I remember laughing because this particular aunt had had her fair share of loser boyfriends.  But I have never forgotten those words.  So watch what they do over time and how they treat you not what they say.
   
   
5. Don't Skip Class.  College is an expensive endeavor.  Very quickly you will meet new people, make new friends and be invited to participate in all kinds of new adventures.  I encourage you to have fun.  Enjoy this time.  True adulthood is just a few years down the road where someone else is no longer picking up the check.  But appreciate what you are being given and go to class.  You will learn things even in the most boring of classes.  Some of the people who influenced me the most in my life were my college professors.  So soak up every minute of the college experience by going to class.

Well this is a good starting point.  Seniors of 2021 are resilient.

Their junior and senior years were taken hostage by a virus. 

But these seniors masked up and marched forward towards graduation day.  

I'm excited to see all the adventures these seniors will have.  

I won't be one of those moms that cries at graduation.  

Because I learned long ago....

"Don't Cry Because It's Over, 

Smile Because It Happened." Dr. Seuss

Rear View Mirror

Rick and I have talked to all of our kids through the years of the many times we can see God's handprint on our lives.  I could list so many different examples whether it was a job, who I married, or even having babies.  But probably one that really stands out for me is getting my first corporate job which eventually led to me meeting a young man from Mitchell, South Dakota.  

When it was time for me to choose a college, I chose the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR).  I chose UALR because I had been awarded a chemistry department scholarship there.  Since I was paying for college by myself that seemed like the sensible choice.

My first year chemistry professor, Dr. Watson, just happened to be the chemistry department chairman.  He was a great man.  He and his wife often invited students to their house for a competitive game of Trivial Pursuit.  One of the senior chemistry students really stunk at Trivia Pursuit and always accused Dr. Watson of insisting on having us play the game at parties just to embarrass him.  Frankly, I don't remember being that great at Trivial Pursuit either but I still had a great time at the Watson's parties.  This is a crazy detail to remember about their home but they had this guest bathroom with black and white tile on the floor and this giant black and white, framed photograph of Mikhail Baryshnikov over the toilet.  At the time I was a huge Baryshnikov fan.  So I guess this is why this detail sticks with me after all these years.  If you're reading this and wondering who Baryshnikov is then it's time to Google.  

As a freshmen chemistry major, I had planned on being a pharmacist.  But Dr. Watson and I talked often and he liked to ask if I really wanted to count pills for the rest of my life.  I would always laugh but eventually when I took technical writing classes I really started to wonder if I was being led down a different path.  I had just finished up Organic Chemistry class for the semester when I went to Dr. Watson and asked him what he thought about me being a technical writer instead of going to pharmacy school.  He loved that idea.  He especially liked the idea of me writing laboratory research.  So we talked for about an hour and during that conversation I became convinced that was my new path and so it was.

Fast forward to the end of my junior year, I received a call from Dr. Watson.  Alcoa had called him and asked him to recommend a student to work for them for the summer.  They wanted a chemistry student who could do some technical writing for their laboratories and their engineers.  Dr. Watson recommended me.  So that next week I interviewed with one of their plant supervisors and shortly after that interview I started working at Alcoa.  

That summer I learned so much about working for a large cooperation.  Most of the employees there at the time were my parents age.  So at times I was getting fatherly and motherly advice from every direction.  When the summer was over, Alcoa offered me a permanent job.  I wasn't really expecting that but since it worked out well with my class schedule I accepted.  I stayed at Alcoa for 2 years before the company had a major layoff.  The layoff took almost 1000 jobs and mine was one of them since seniority mattered in layoffs at Alcoa.  I was fortunate that my manager at the time arranged for me to work 2 more months then get a severance package.  So I interviewed quickly at Systematics Information Services in Little Rock, Arkansas.  I was hired and started at Systematics 1 week after I left Alcoa.  Systematics had an entire technical writing department.  Forty plus writers all in one department documenting all the different banking software that they sold at the time.  I started working there at their corporate office in June of 1990.  Coincidently, Rick started working for Systematics in June of 1990 also but he was placed at one of their data centers in a different state.  Several years later he was transferred to Little Rock where he met me.

I've heard it said that it's sometimes easier to see God in our rear view mirror than the windshield.  I can testify to how true that is when I look back over all of the moments and all of the people God wove into my life to set me on the path HE wanted.