In 1986, I was accepted into the MSW program of the London School of Economics, but I turned it down. After visiting London for the fourth time in September 2024, I dream of returning and I wonder what my life would be like now if I had studied there in the late 80s. I just wrote a 700-word essay about it; maybe I will publish it on Substack. Thanks for the prompt!
When I entered the service right out of highschool, it was the Army I enlisted in, but the Navy was what my heart wanted. Oh well, I couldn't grow three inches, and the Army passed me on a one inch waiver. In the meantime, I had written all my congress men with the help of my government teacher, made the front page of the local paper, and had been on the radio telling my story of how I fought to get in. How a man even shorter got in, now hows that fair?! So six weeks later, when my parents received the letter from the Department of the Navy saying id been accepted, they decided not to upset the path id already perused, and didn't tell me for months. I wouldn't have lost any stripes or time by switching branches, but now I'd never know.
In the end, my story was a good one. I traveled more in my 4 1/2 yr stint than most people do their whole career. I learned two trades, the second became my civilian career. After my medical discharge, I had a year to myself, then met my husband whom I've been married to for 40 yrs.
After my first child was born I decided to quit the corporate world and become a Mary Kay Sales Director. For some reason I did really well at this job and within a few months had a team of thirty women in my unit selling skin care, make up, and fragrance. I won a shiny red Grand Am, all expenses paid, and was on the fast track to becoming a National Sales Director. I was determined to make Mary Kay my career and loved being able to work from home. However, I was actually a super natural, outdoorsy girl who didn’t even wear make-up! When I was pregnant with my daughter I realized that path was totally wrong for me so I retired from the world of pink Cadillacs and lipstick. Soon I had my third child, and was lucky enough to remain at home to raise the kids until they went to school. That lifestyle felt perfect for me and my family. But sometimes I wonder what life would be like had I stayed the course with Mary Kay. Would I be a millionaire sales director now? Would I be as happy as I am today?
In 1986, I was accepted into the MSW program of the London School of Economics, but I turned it down. After visiting London for the fourth time in September 2024, I dream of returning and I wonder what my life would be like now if I had studied there in the late 80s. I just wrote a 700-word essay about it; maybe I will publish it on Substack. Thanks for the prompt!
When I entered the service right out of highschool, it was the Army I enlisted in, but the Navy was what my heart wanted. Oh well, I couldn't grow three inches, and the Army passed me on a one inch waiver. In the meantime, I had written all my congress men with the help of my government teacher, made the front page of the local paper, and had been on the radio telling my story of how I fought to get in. How a man even shorter got in, now hows that fair?! So six weeks later, when my parents received the letter from the Department of the Navy saying id been accepted, they decided not to upset the path id already perused, and didn't tell me for months. I wouldn't have lost any stripes or time by switching branches, but now I'd never know.
In the end, my story was a good one. I traveled more in my 4 1/2 yr stint than most people do their whole career. I learned two trades, the second became my civilian career. After my medical discharge, I had a year to myself, then met my husband whom I've been married to for 40 yrs.
After my first child was born I decided to quit the corporate world and become a Mary Kay Sales Director. For some reason I did really well at this job and within a few months had a team of thirty women in my unit selling skin care, make up, and fragrance. I won a shiny red Grand Am, all expenses paid, and was on the fast track to becoming a National Sales Director. I was determined to make Mary Kay my career and loved being able to work from home. However, I was actually a super natural, outdoorsy girl who didn’t even wear make-up! When I was pregnant with my daughter I realized that path was totally wrong for me so I retired from the world of pink Cadillacs and lipstick. Soon I had my third child, and was lucky enough to remain at home to raise the kids until they went to school. That lifestyle felt perfect for me and my family. But sometimes I wonder what life would be like had I stayed the course with Mary Kay. Would I be a millionaire sales director now? Would I be as happy as I am today?
God of Coincidence
you might have been that long-legged
woman striking as tall as you
we’d looked at the very same Rothko exhibit
a show confined to one floor
so where in the world could she have been
she seemed rushed hailed a cab and fled a mere instant
I noticed her beauty no doubt
but more her eyes’ sadness though they never met mine
her look conveyed well I can’t say what
she shook out her hair at the car-door
the gesture was brisk it made me sigh
because it revealed certain traits I thought
ones I now know were my own inventions
my sorrow plain silly yes but profound
music cuisine dance styles fashions
a million more things have changed
since she escaped as I absurdly
put it I turned just after she vanished
you were there (time’s elastic for me)
and incredibly I still think you’ve stayed
if there’s a god then he or she
uses chance to remain incognito
the two of us might never have met
thank god that woman so quickly got free
I’d been offered that job out west
what might life down in Charleston be
that’s the sort of thought in those long-ago days
you might well have been entertaining
how right in hindsight her taxi moving
her not asking me say what time it was by Sydney Lea