Most of my friends took typing in ninth grade. Not me. There was no way I was ever going to be a secretary, and really, what other job would require that skill?
I didn’t take it when I was a sophomore either. Then, when I was a junior, I took typing for one reason and one reason only. My friend Pam and I were determined to be among the school’s nine delegates to South Dakota Girls State, a weeklong exercise in responsible citizenship, and I figured membership in Future Business Leaders of America would help my cause. And the only way I could join FBLA was to take a business course.
Well, I don’t know for sure if it was that FBLA membership that put me over the top with the American Legion Auxiliary, but I made Girls State (and so did Pam, although she quit talking to me when we were seniors and I have no idea what ever happened to her). And at Girls State, I won a tuition scholarship for freshman year at South Dakota State University. I’m not sure I would have gone to college, at least not right away, without that scholarship.
The even funnier thing is that I’ve used those typing skills virtually every day of my life since graduating from high school. I mean, what else would a journalist, author, editor, or marketing person do, write out/mark out everything by hand?
I try to remember that lesson about typing when I’m tempted to dismiss opportunities for new experiences today. You never know when a lecture, seminar, or course is going to have an application in your life. Be open. Give any learning opportunity a shot.
Melanie, so that was your secret. I’ve been reading your blogs and they’re entertaining but this one brought it home for me. They picked me because I was the token athletic girl…it wasn’t my typing. I became self taught as an adult out of necessity. Teachers need to create their own tests.
I hear you’re writing a book….got get ’em! You’ve got the talent and the wit. One of the best writers the O and B and the Collegian had….Miss Norman will be proud!
Hey Linda! So good to hear from you, you Girls State gal and shudda-been lieutenant governor. Hope all is well in the Soo! Yep, working on an edgy Christian novel. We’ll see where it goes! Peace, Mel
I went to Maryland’s Girls’ State in 1981! It was my first away from home experience!
Mel:
Your blog brought up a great memory for me. Five kids from my Catholic high school were elected to attend the national CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) convention in Buffalo, NY. My friend Suzanne and I were the only juniors. We crammed into a train out of Chicago with hundreds of other delegates and make the forever journey by rail. I can’t remember how many thousands of high school kids were there but on the last night they had the largest sit-down dinner ever served in the United States. Bobby Kennedy was the keynote speaker. At the end he walked right past my table and I fumbled with my camera, snapped two shots and got the most unbelievable double exposure shot of him that you can imagine. It’s still on my refrigerator. Check it out when you come down to see me in November. Don’t remember much else about that convention, however. Oh, ya, we figured out how to take the mirror off the bathroom medicine chest in the big fancy hotel so we could talk to the boys in the room below us. They did the same with their mirror and we could actually see each other and drop stuff down to them. Ah, youth.
Pat