One good thing about combining my blogs and using them more as a place for whatever I want to talk about means when something happens that I want to write about that wouldn’t have fit either of the two original blogs, I can. Tonight is a night like that. I apologize in advance for how rambling this post is sure to be.
I just found out that one of my favorite teachers from high school passed away tonight. He was my history teacher in eighth grade and I adored him. Everyone did. He was awesome.
Mr. Taylor made learning fun. He made history entertaining. He made you want to do well. And for kids like me who already did well, he made me feel like it was possible to a be nerd and be (kinda) cool too. He loved history and Jeopardy and Full Metal Jacket. He was funny.
He and several of the other teachers played tricks on each other and got the kids involved. It was awesome. One of the things I remember most about junior high is the laughter. We had a pretty young group of teachers overall who had fun with us and who really seemed to love their jobs.
I remember one time, someone was having a party and had invited him to come, and he actually dropped by. It was like something out of a TV show.
My class had a pretty unique experience. They opened a new junior high when I was starting seventh grade, and were building new buildings so it was just the seventh grade, then the next year it was seventh and eighth, then my final year of junior high it was seventh, eighth, and ninth. That made my class pretty close, because we had the whole school to ourselves the first year and that bonded us more than the typical experience in a 6A district.
I was shocked to hear about Doug. It makes you remember how precious every moment is. He was just having bad headaches a week ago. I have headaches all the time; you don’t think they’re serious. It finally got so bad, he went to the doctor who sent him to the ER where he had surgery on a brain tumor. He was only around 39 years old. I had him as a teacher his first year of teaching.
I pulled out my eighth and ninth grade yearbooks to see what he wrote. They were nice words and it was nice to be able to see a physical mark he left behind. It’s weird to read those words and see the pictures on his Facebook page from just a few weeks ago where he’s so very much alive. I’m glad I connected with him on Facebook a few months ago and told him he was one of my favorite teachers. He signed my yearbook Doug, which made me feel very grown up at the time.
As I flipped through my yearbooks tonight, I was happy to see so many faces of people I still talk to today and sad to see faces and signatures from people who have passed away. Sad to see Jeremy Moody’s signature and remember how I had a crush on him and thought we should date because I was practically the only the girl in school shorter than him. He died in a motorcycle accident several years ago. Sad to see several people joke about Jason McBride’s and my love/hate relationship in science class. I still can’t look at his signatures without crying and wishing I could change the past. He committed suicide our senior year. Sad to see Mrs. Morrison, my cheerleading coach, happy and beautiful and at one point pregnant, unaware that the little boy she already had at home would one day grow up and commit suicide on Mother’s day. I cried, and prayed for the families of those who have gone before us.
But I remember the good times too. The day Amber Palmer slipped me a note in seventh grade reading asking me to be friends. Cheerleading. Drama class. Watching Empire Records for the first time, watching it twice in one night. Reading and debating The Giver in Mrs. Lackey’s class. Making friendships that will last for life. Having a crush on my eighth grade history teacher. My first kiss. Well, that actually wasn’t that good come to think of it. My second and third kisses. Dressing up in sheets with Amber Turley in Mrs. Pennington’s class to act out a report on Egyptian history. Mr. Taylor saw us in the hall on the way to give our report and I remember him laughing and having us wave to his class.
So even though today was a sad day and the world lost a great man, I chose to remember him laughing and think of him laughing up in Heaven now, in peace.
Join the conversation: Do you have a special teacher in your past? What makes them special to you?
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I’m a little bit behind the times and just finished reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. My skeptical nature always leads me to question books that get rave reviews everywhere and seem to explode out of nowhere. Since it’s usually a PR strategy behind the success this really shouldn’t bother me since that’s what I do for a living, and I do like that it gets people reading who might not normally, but it still just makes me leery about picking up some of the books myself.
I should not have waited with The Help. I loved it! It captured a piece of time brilliantly – Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960s. It’s told through the perspective of three different women, two black maids and a white young woman who starts questioning the world she was raised in.
Clearly, I wasn’t alive back then and so I can’t say for certain how accurate a portrayal everything was, but it was beautifully written and seems accurate from the picture my Grandma paints of Oklahoma at the time (although Grandma never had a maid so I can’t judge that part). She does talk about how whites treated blacks at the time though, and how she was just raised a certain way and didn’t think about it when she was younger. It’s just the way things were, then fortunately they changed.
That’s how a lot of the whites are portrayed in this book as well. With a few very clear exceptions, most of the white characters aren’t overt racists. They are simply following in their parents’ footsteps. That doesn’t make it okay, but she doesn’t villainize people as a whole either. She does include a main character who is extremely racist though, and it’s hard to read about how she treats her maid and orders the other women to treat their maids, including starting a crusade to have everyone install outhouses for their help to use. I can’t imagine hearing some of the things she says in front of the help, like they aren’t even there. It’s horrible that people were treated that way. I kept thinking about some of my black friends and putting them in those situations and it was just awful to think about.
While The Helpcertainly makes you think about race, I think it succeeds because it’s not only about race. It’s about the characters. You fall in love with them, root for them, and worry about them. They stick with you after you’re done. It’s also about standing up for what you believe in, in any way you can. Skeeter, the main white character, knows if she comes right out and starts advocating black rights, she won’t get anywhere. She finds a way to to help in secret and make more of an impact in her case than she would otherwise. Aibileen and Minnie, the two other main characters, also find ways to help their cause, taking enormous risks to do so. I don’t want to discuss that to much to avoid spoilers, but it’s definitely a motivational book that will make you feel like you can make a difference.
Join the conversation: Have you read The Help? What did you think? What other books dealing with race would you recommend? I also really liked Plum Bun by Jessie Redmon Fauset, about a black woman who passed for white in 1929.
I mentioned on Friday that there will be big changes around here on Monday, now it’s time for the big announcement. I have accepted a job as an account executive at PR agency, Anglin Public Relations. This means I won’t be taking on any new freelance clients, but I will continue to serve existing clients. I’m thrilled about this opportunity and can’t wait to impact local organizations through this new position.
As I won’t be using this site to grow my freelance business any more, I’m changing directions. I’m folding my book blog, Sparks’ Notes, into this site, so you’ll start seeing book reviews here. You’ll also see more of my personality and random musings on my various interests such as hockey, General Hospital, and geeky items. You’ll still get great marketing and PR tips here as well, plus leadership advice.
I’ve updated my About Me page to reflect these changes and so you can learn a little bit more about me personally.
Since I’m moving my book blog here, I’ve also created pages to track the books I’ve read this year so far and the 1,001 books to read before you die list.
For those of you who know I just changed jobs recently, you may be wondering what prompting the second change. I stayed at one place for eight years and now have suddenly become a job hopper! The job I accepted changed greatly once a new CEO was brought on board. This wasn’t bad, it just made it not right for me. I’m at my best when I’m strategically planning, brainstorming ideas, and writing, and those weren’t part of the adjusted role. I’m excited to take on this new challenge of being an account executive with such a great company. I can’t wait to start helping some wonderful local organizations achieve their goals.
Life is too short to not do what you enjoy and to put up with working for people you don’t like or respect (which is part of what spurred my initial job hunt). I’m happy to being chasing my dreams and look forward to sharing my insights with you!
Disclaimer: Please note that all thoughts, opinions, and ideas on this blog are my own and do not reflect my current or former employers or anyone I may mention.
Join in the conversation: Have you ever started a new job and realized it wasn’t right for you? What did you do?
