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Life is also the idea of coming full circle and here I am not 15 minutes from where I grew up, though I thought that would never happen. I have lived in the South for most of my life, big cities and small, beaches and inland. Every place has something to offer – from climate to people to food. You simply have to decide to look for the good things, wherever you land. I grew up locally in Tucker and attended the high school there. I had spent my childhood before that in Kansas and came down here amazed at the forest of trees and wondering why people spoke so slowly. I’ve been told that even with two Southern parents and living here most of my life, I still don’t have much of an accent – so I suppose there is still enough of Kansas and Minnesota before that, thrown in. While in high school I enjoyed two subjects the most – history and math, history, just because it was fascinating and math, because I was good at it. I decided to go the engineering route because there are engineers in my family and I really liked the logic and problem solving part of it. As for history, the only job with history (that I knew of anyway) was teaching, and I couldn’t imagine myself a teacher. A chance remark by a friend of my moms spurred me to Tech. He made the comment “that girls didn’t belong there” and so of course, I decided to go. This was even though I had originally planned to move well out of state. I then had the incredible opportunity to attend Tech the summer between my junior and senior years of high school through a National Science Foundation program. Sixty of us lived on campus for 6 weeks. After that there was no other place I wanted to go, and since I couldn’t imagine waiting and having the typical summer job, I started Tech early, just after graduation. I loved Tech and it was an excellent school to attend. Of course they did the usual freshman introduction of “look to your left, look to your right, of the three of you, only one will be around to graduate” – they were right. One very sobering realization about Tech is how many very smart people there are in the world. You come from high school, feeling exceptionally bright, and land on a campus where valedictorians and salutatorians are the norm. Tech was wonderful, enlightening and great, but it was also full of guys. Normally this wouldn’t be considered an issue but after a while I longed for another female face, somewhere, anywhere, and thus my foray into the world of sororities. Again this was a spur of the moment choice since my image of sororities was not the best. But thankfully my image was wrong and I found many life long friends and memories through ADPi. Another choice was that of summer jobs – I didn’t like them. And after my freshman summer, I immediately walked straight into the Co-op office so I wouldn’t have another “typical” summer job. Co-oping is wonderful and scary and a learning experience all at the same time. Can you say “playing at being an adult” (and getting paid for it to boot), and then coming back to the “hard” life as a student? What a great way to grow up - very slowly! My thanks to Monsanto and an amazingly friendly little town of Greenwood, South Carolina, for being so welcoming to a very novice 19 year old. And then another set of thanks to DuPont and a very fun town of Wilmington, North Carolina, and better yet, Wrightsville Beach, for letting me put the finishing touches to my IE skills, not to mention honing my lightening touch at de-heading shrimp. Everyone has little life lessons, especially when they get their first “real” jobs. Co-oping gives you a very forgiving environment to learn and benefit from those lessons. Plus, you then get to go back and start again. Now having Co-oped for two well-known companies, and have modeled many a pair of steel toed shoes, I was all set to go out to the world. Then came Spring Break and the Keys. It’s beautiful in the Keys, and so when the opportunity came to work for Florida Power and Light instead, smack in the middle of south Florida – beaches, palm trees, sun – I jumped at the chance. And thus met some great friends, had some wonderful work experiences and training, and grew up. I appreciate the variety of jobs and experiences via FP&L – the nuclear plants, the opportunities to train and teach, the private jets and of course, the helicopter rides. And amongst all of that, due to again a random choice, met a best friend and through her, another best friend, my soulmate. 1986 was a very good year – I married JC and found a whole new family in the Ahlrichs of Illinois (plus I learned to play cribbage and hearts thanks to some great in-laws). 1988 was a very good year – Sally was born and named after a dear friend of both of ours. 1989 was a very good year – with Dan joining the family, which led to me leaving FP&L and joining JC at his CPA business. 1992 was not a very good year – somewhere I read there are 7 things that constitute losses in a person’s life – we experienced 6 of them. Surviving Hurricane Andrew, a child’s diagnosis, the loss of someone very dear. Later that year we moved back home to Georgia to be around family. Suddenly my two children had “real” aunts and uncles to go with the many back in Florida – very confusing when you are young. Fast forward to new businesses, new schools, new child (Megan – my angel here on earth), and we come to 2004. After 12 years of happily raising children, volunteering at schools and Scouts, being involved in church, and getting Dan to a more independent point, I thought about going back to “work”. The real turning point was when my youngest, then age 9, made a comment about women and working, and was surprised that I had ever been anything other than a “mom”. This awoke some long dormant “femi-nazi” emotions as I realized that perhaps I had not been the role model I thought I should be for my daughters. And so, in January 2004, we began talking about my going back to work – engineering? something else? Engineering is a passion but I wasn’t willing to trade off the travel and the time for my three kids at home, role models aside. Then JC asked the seemingly simple question of “if you could do anything you wanted, what would you do?” I really thought about it and replied, “Something with books, lots of books and lots of kids - I think I would like to work in the Media Center at a school.” This wasn’t as random as it seems, since I had been volunteering in them through three schools and countless years. And so he said, “well then find out what it takes and go do it” – and so, here I am, two very quick years later, about to graduate, and… this is still tough to say even after two years, about to graduate from UGA. So a bachelor from Tech and a Masters from UGA. I have strongly considered a very large gold GT on top of my cap on May 13 th but will probably suffice to some discreet ones underneath. I have good friends from Tech who are willing to join me in Athens to help me celebrate, and good friends from UGA who are ready to catch every photo imaginable to kid me about later. So where to I go from here? I have threatened to go back to school. I’ve enjoyed this much more than I thought I would, and have even gotten good at writing 100 words when 10 would suffice. But my kids and husband have threatened to disown me if I don’t give up my computer habit. So that will have to wait until a few kids have flown the nest. So for now my goals both professionally and personally are fairly simple. On a professional level I hope to be a Media Specialist at a school in the Fall of 2006. After a few interviews recently this seems a strong possibility but I won’t know the location for another week or so. I hope to do the best job I can and make the Media Center a place I would love to go to if I were a student. I hope I can make the Media Center a place for the staff to find the help they need and the kids to discover the light that goes on when you read a good book. Personally, my first and foremost goal is to reacquaint myself with my family. I intend to really enjoy this summer – because it is the first summer in the past few years that I’m not in school, my last before working full time again, and our last with Sally at home (if we can get her to stay home long enough that is). Secondly, I will remember to enjoy each day and celebrate life, to thank God for what we have and to appreciate the moment. Thirdly, I want to help three wonderful children blossom and grow over the next few years, and see Sally go the schools of her dreams, and to fulfill a dream by having Dan go to college. And last, to end up wherever JC decides to call home, whether by a mountain stream or a log cabin on a farm in central Illinois (as long as I have a rocker and a stack of books). Each of us is unique – in our likes, dislikes, talents and desires. I am known by many names, usually as Sal, Dan or Meg’s mom, or JC’s wife, Miss Donna by the many Girl Scouts I have had the blessing to be with, or even the nice Media Center lady. I am all of those and am proud of what each represents. But I am also me. I am a good friend who has a good shoulder to lean on. I am a friend who will look for the good in things and listen. I am a history buff, who as a 3 rd career would love to be on the History Channel for anything to do with Roman, early Byzantine or Medieval history. I am a voracious reader of many different genres, especially kid’s non-fiction, and love to be able to pull out a book on almost any subject from my home library. I’m considered a great cook by some favorite nieces that may someday find me a fraud, but in the meantime I can make up some delicious old family recipes. I am an organizer, and problem solver, and love anything to do with logic. I have practiced (long and hard via many school volunteer opportunities) to be a good “helper”, but I am awesome at organizing – just be careful if you ask because I tend to take over. I am a good laugher but only an ok singer, as my family well knows. I am the mother of a son with autism, which puts me in the special needs world. While it is not a place many of us go by choice, it is a place that makes you re-evaluate what is truly important in life. Dan has changed all of our lives in so many positive ways, and I am a better parent and a better person because of him. I am also the mother of two truly beautiful daughters, who have the grace and goodness inside to match their beauty outside. I am thankful to my “clone” who doesn’t always realize how proud I am to have her as my daughter, and for people to think we are alike. I am also thankful for my youngest who is more like her grandmother than we realize, past her smile and face but to her personality and individualism. I have my mother’s smile – which means the world to my extended family. I love roses and have over 60 bushes covering my front and back yards, which I joyfully share with neighbors and teachers, from April to early December – thanks to JC’s hard work of planting, fertilizing and spraying. I have the “hard” job of cutting them. I am a good Christian and have a strong faith, which has grown over these last few years, thanks to a persistent husband and a patient God. I am a good mom and a great wife and a better soulmate. Each of us is unique in our own way, I am glad to be me. Resume | Program of Study | Autobiography |
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