Adventures in Grad school - German

 My grad school wouldn't accept my undergraduate German language credit, so I had to take German again in grad school.  

Easy peezy, right? nope. The teacher walked into the room talking in German and she wouldn't stop to translate. Instantly I was treading water there and had to work desperately hard to keep up in that class or else I'd not get my graduate degree.  

We were living in college married housing and I told my husband (also a student) that for that semester, I wasn't doing any housework or cooking. It would be Study German All The Time for me. (yes, I passed. Whew!)

(Some years ago I had met my husband-to be in German class. He was great in languages, so his German credit was accepted by the grad school.)

Why did you become a librarian?

 I was in Junior College. (nowadays they are called community colleges and offer two years of college at a reduced rate). My mother insisted that I could only go if I learned a skill - so I signed up for the secretarial course, but took as many academic courses as I could. 

In my English class, along with all the writing assignments (and typing other people's papers because I could type - yay Secretarial course), the teacher talked about choosing our profession. I had taken those tests that supposedly told you what profession I was suited for, but it came out vague, right on the line between MEN's professions and women's professions. 

This professor talked about - if you liked this you'd be good at this profession and if you like that you'd be good at that profession, but if you were interested in EVERYTHING, you should be a librarian. Lightbulb moment. !!! I focused on becoming a librarian - working part time in the college typing pool because - Yay secretarial course.

Enjoying life

 I expected to live until 75. My husband died at age 69 - but he was sick for many years so 69 was a great milestone for him and I treasure the years I had with him. I'm now lots over 75 and yes, I give myself little pleasures. I moved west to live near my children. I completed a second master's degree - this time in writing. I fly once a year, so I treat myself to first class. I live - not at, but close to the beach and treat myself to walking on or near the beach several times a week. Got chased up onto the parking lot by a huge wave last week. A group of us ran from that wave and it was fun. When our family was younger , we couldn't afford to travel and stay in hotels/ motels, so our family brought our tent and we camped instead. By going to various conventions related to our work or to our outside interests, we got to see various parts of our country. I've seen the Mississippi several times, the Great arch at St. Louis, and the grand canyon -- all from the window of an airplane as I traveled to visit relatives. Got to see the Alamo (a disappointment - it's surrounded by city and smaller than expected) when visiting relatives in Texas. Drove to Florida, to see relatives, and enjoyed the bathtub warm Gulf of Mexico. I've been to both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. (never enough time to see everything, tho) I've lived in the Appalachian mountains and have visited the Rockies. (I've lived in 5 states.) I've enjoyed playing in various orchestras, including a community orchestra made up of performers of all ages, where I sat next to a guy who became part of the rock group, Chicago. Two guys proposed to me right after they tasted the pumpkin pie that I made. One of them proposed simply because he realized I could cook. 🙂 I told them both that I was determined to get a college degree before I got married. (got married to a different guy and we both went to grad school together, which was fun.)