Chapter 30

Life in Kansas had begun.  My new high school was awesome ~ I particularly enjoyed choir!  I made a few good friends and was off to a good start as a freshman.  During that first week of school, our choir director introduced the private voice teacher that taught lessons at the school.  I came home that day and begged to be able to take private voice lessons!  My supportive Aunt and Uncle granted my request.  I’m sure there were stipulations, but I was too giddy to remember.  Singing was my one true gift and I would finally be able to realize its full potential.  While mired down in my life in Iowa, dreams of being a singer or movie star supplied an escape from my reality.  If I could only become famous, everyone would have to love me.  And now, I was at the precipice of my fame.  But I was constantly reminded that in order to see my dreams come true, I had to get good grades in all my classes, not just choir.   My biggest challenge came in the form of Algebra.  I hated it!  I had already taken Algebra in 8^th grade back in Iowa, but I failed it due to “lack of effort”.  Word problems were simply the bane of my existence.  By the way, as an adult, I have never put word problems to good use!!!  Uncle Doug was a whiz at math.  We would spend countless hours at the kitchen table doing Algebra together.  Well, not so much doing Algebra together, but getting frustrated with each other.  Uncle Doug simply could not understand how I couldn’t get this!  This was one of the biggest challenges to our relationship.  He thought I wasn’t trying or wasn’t concentrating.  But I was!  I now know that one of the traits of a good teacher is taking something that comes easy to you and finding a way to explain it to someone else in terms they can understand.  It took me a good year to get the message that my grades were important.  It also took a good year of yelling.  When I think on my first year with Aunt Peg and Uncle Doug, I often think about my cousin Carrie.  She was only eight years old when I moved in.  She had enjoyed eight years as an only child.  That joy came to an abrupt end when I arrived.