My Passion, My Purpose and Monkeys

My Passion, My Purpose and Monkeys

           My passion is greater than my ability. In the proverbial nutshell, that’s how I ended up at Lee University working on a degree in Liberal Arts with an English Concentration. I am, at 54, intentionally pursuing a big piece of my God given purpose. In this paper, I will share a little of my background and my life journey that, at this point in my life, has given my original dream new wings.

           When I was about 8 and quite shy, I began my teaching career. I taught reading, writing, mathematics and science to everything I could convince to sit still for a while. Most of the time, my dolls and stuffed animals excelled in my classes with the occasional misbehaving monkey jumping on the bed. I enjoyed teaching reading and writing more than any other subject and wanted to do something with that knowledge though I didn’t know what or how. Little did I know that my calling would take shape from these experiences.

           I lived for elementary school. I excelled in English and the Accelerated Reader program. I read daily sometimes consuming an entire book like Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume or Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O-Dell in one sitting. My introversion and shyness found solace and freedom in the imaginary places to which I traveled in my mind. The Boxcar Children were my dearest friends. As I entered middle school, I was drawn to Trixie Belden and The Hardy Boys. I became a diehard fan of J. R. R. Tolkien in middle school, reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Silmarillion from cover-to-cover multiple times. I entered the thrilling worlds of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in high school. High school proved to be fertile ground for my active imagination. I discovered unexplored genres of literature and expanded my horizons significantly with The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin and Geoffery Chaucer’s Canterbury Tale. I wanted to share my love of books with others but didn’t think I could do it. I also have a love for languages, so I moved forward with that pursuit in college. That’s where I got off track.

Greg and Alicyn, a loving student couple at my school, kindly befriended me after seeing me alone for 3 semesters. We all had great love for learning and languages, and I was hooked. I started skipping school to have lunch with them off-campus. My grades suffered. Greg and Alicyn got married and, after four years, I left college feeling like a failure. I had various mundane jobs and worked in Cleveland until I fell in love, got married and moved to Nashville.

Del and I married in 2000 and our honeymoon baby, Noelle, was born nine months later. Life got tough, but God sustained us. I served in church music and worked hard but found myself a single mom in 2007. Noelle and I moved into a little apartment, and I poured myself into raising my bright, creative daughter. She was and is my constant motivation to be better and do better.

After divorce, I reevaluated my life. I examined my few successes and many failures. I vowed to do better for our little family of two. With the help of the Lord, I started a wonderful job that included a beautiful house at our new church. I served there for the next 14 years as Music and Administrative Pastor. I grew into myself in those years learning how to take my introversion and exchange some of it for “extra” version. My job fulfilled me and I taught many bible studies. Doing that stirred the gift that God gave me.

I was in my 13^th year at the church when I started struggling to breathe. I interrupted my daughter’s spring break plans in the early hours of March 5, 2023 by asking her to come straight to Nashville to take me to the emergency room. She dropped everything and drove three hours to help me. I was hospitalized for ten days and told I would need triple bypass open heart surgery. After many complications, I went into the operating room in May of 2023. Complications from the procedure caused partial paralysis in my feet, legs and other parts of my body and left me with a few brain function issues. Following quadruple bypass surgery, I was hospitalized or in a rehabilitation facility for twelve weeks. My daughter went to Virginia to do her internship during part of my recovery time, but we made the best of it. When she returned, she helped tremendously before heading home to her apartment and my “grandcat”, Domino.

As time passed, I tried to do my job but struggled. Noelle was concerned and invited me to move in with her. I accepted and moved back to Cleveland in August of 2024. I applied for disability in November and really didn’t see any other way, but my daughter did. She encouraged me to actively pursue my passion and purpose, believing that I was gifted in teaching.

Noelle planted the “go back to college” seed and God reminded me of my teaching dream. I applied to attend Lee University in December of 2024 and am now a full-time student. I am extremely blessed to be part of Lee. I plan to graduate in May of 2026 and will go on to pursue a Master of Arts in Teaching. I plan to be the teacher students love and hate. My classes will be tough but will open minds, fire imaginations and bring new worlds to my students. I look forward to seeing the lightbulbs going on as students find points of connection in the stories, books, plays and poems we read. Teaching English will fulfill my lifelong dream, and Lee University is the vehicle bringing my ability in line with my passion and my purpose. No more monkeys jumping on the bed.