High School…Senior Year.
So many dreams for the future mixed with an incredible amount of uncertainty with what might lie ahead.
For those with both feet firmly planted on the pathway to college or some career, there was little doubt in place. For others, like me, there was one choice, a dream even, with what was on my horizon. That was a constant topic in 12th grade. What college did you pick? Where will you be working? And of course, for those who had been high school “couples” of record, the inevitable… Will you get married after school?
Just one thing was on my agenda. Stewardess College. That’s what it was called, back in the day.
I had the application filled-out, ready to attend the American Airlines facility in Dallas, Texas. As I recall, being 18 at the time, both parental signatures were required on the form and I had just one, my fathers. My mother, another story. Mind you, I had that paperwork tucked away once I started my senior year but my mother always refused to discuss it when I broached the subject with her. Airplanes crash! was always her basic response but that was her way, much like being at the beach and hearing her say You’ll drown! each time I went into the water. Ahhh, the downside of my being an only child.
Graduation slowly moved closer and so did my application. One more attempt to get my mother to sign failed miserably the week before commencement. And, she managed to convince my father to set me up with an office position with Bell Telephone. To both of them, my future looked bright, at least through their glasses, but not mine. That one dream I held so close ended up being torn into pieces and thrown in the wastebasket.
Was it the right thing? I’ll never know but I sure as hell will always wonder. A missed opportunity to spread my wings disappeared with an argument and a parental mandate. Every young person should have that chance to grow and experience life’s unknown territories. But, that was more than fifty years ago, when kids mostly listened, and obeyed, their parents. We trusted their judgement and relied on whatever wisdom we thought they had even if that was based on their desire to retain some element of control.
Life will happen, in spite of it all and although we take those roads less traveled or make a few detours along the way, we all end up just where we’re supposed to be.
I’ve learned that, if nothing more.
From Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop…Share a 12th grade memory. Trust me, I gave a lot of thought back then to simply forging my mothers name on that application. I mean, what could have happened once I had my suitcase packed and got out the door to the airport? The hardest part would have been finding someone to drive me to JFK. Woulda, coulda, shoulda!
