Awards and Accomplishments

 

The first award I can remember I received in the first grade.   I have always been good in penmanship.  Yep, you have probably already noticed that, huh?  I received a penmanship award and my writing was posted in a school booth at the Hancock County Fair in 1956.   I was really proud and so was my mom and dad.   My brother didn’t much care, his penmanship wasn’t too shabby either.

After that I got a few perfect attendance awards, except for 3rd grade when I had the measles and missed a couple of weeks of school.   Then came the Spelling Bee.   I was the Spelling Bee Runner-up for 4 years (every single year I was eligible)   I went to the County Spelling Bee (along with the Champion Speller, of course)  and I participated.  Yes I did.  Never won, but I did participate and I studied hard that little book of words.

I was musically inclined, so my piano teacher gave me hundreds of Gold Stars for doing well on certain musical numbers.  And it was easy for me to memorize songs, so many of the songs in my piano lesson books have the word “memorized”  written next to the gold star.    I also participated in Music Contests with my trumpet, but found little success.   I would always get very nervous and my mouth would get so dry I couldn’t play.   All of you trumpet players know that you need a lot of saliva to play the trumpet.  I did well in the band, though.  Just not playing solo.

In high school, I even got to play in the District III Band concert, which was an event featuring the best players from all area schools performing a medley of tunes.   It was kind of a fluke, though, because the only reason I got to go was that the person from my school who was supposed to play in the District III Band had a conflict and couldn’t go.  I was the back up plan.   Hey, it was still an honor, right?

In high school I was always on the Honor Roll and I was senior editor of the yearbook for a couple of days until some other more popular girl said she wanted to be senior editor, so I lost that job.  To popularity, I guess.  Pretty sure I was more qualified.

I was class treasurer for my Freshman and Sophomore classes.   Those were the two years where there was no money in the treasury, so I did a really good job on that.

I was President of the Band, which I later found out was just a title with no real meaning behind it.  But there I am in the yearbook…. President of the Band!

After High School, things kind of went downhill when it came to awards.    I guess I must have peaked early.

Recently I entered a writing contest sponsored by a Agriculture Seed Company and was chosen as a regional finalist.  The winner was chosen by reader votes and I came in 2nd place in the Midwest.  I won $1000 worth of Seed Soybeans which we just harvested last week (October 2013) and a Webber Grill (which I gave to my son, because I already had a pretty new one)  It was fun and I keep thinking I will try more contests just for the experience and to see how I can compete with other writers.

There you go.   Most of my accomplishments are no different from anyone else I know.   I have been happily married  since 1971.  I have three wonderful children who I am very proud of and three grandchildren who I love very much, and in March 2018 my first great grandchild was born.

  I managed to juggle a career (teaching for 34 years) and a family without doing too much damage to either one.   I have helped my husband in his pursuit of farming and excavating and have tried to be supportive  to him.  I am now even more involved with the business decisions since I retired from teaching.

I have worked hard and probably not played enough, but that’s something many of my readers will probably identify with.   I have tried to always stick up for what I think is right and that seems to get easier as I get older.

So there you have a little bit more information about me than you had before.  It’s not’s stuff that movies are made of, but I have tried my best …. and I ain’t done yet!