#sol 17 Day 20 Chapters of My Life

One of the wonderful gifts of the SOL challenge is "meeting new people" and "learning" new writing formats.  On Sunday, Carrie @Carrie Writes  did a memoir format that I wanted to try. So, with respect to Carrie, here are some slices of my memoir:

I was in 2nd grade and my mom was picking me up from school. "Your mom is having a baby," the boy who sat next to me chided.  "No she's not," I countered.  But the next day, I had to go back and tell him he was right.  My baby brother had arrived and our one bedroom mobile home was filled to the brim with a family of 5 during that chapter.

I had just turned 11 and was eagerly awaiting the beginning of 7th grade when my parents called a family meeting.  "We're moving to Mississippi," they said. My mom was not happy about leaving her house, the one finally decorated the way  she wanted it. Moving where they talked, ate and lived very differently was a challenging chapter.    

I was in high school but was "bused" to SUNY Albany where I had an "inside" view of the growing unrest on college campuses.  I watched protesters stage sit-ins on the quad and read hand-outs challenging what our government was doing. I listened to the demonstrators and the songs of the protesters became my own. It was certainly a confusing and scary chapter of not just my story .

It was my last day of student teaching and the last day before the winter recess, when my principal asked if I would like to take over a 1st grade class for the rest of the year. We were standing in the hallway when this sort-of-interview-offer was delivered and as my heart rate inched into the dangerous zone, I accepted the job  So began a wonderful, challenging, many faceted chapter of my life.

It was a Sunday afternoon, many years later, and we were gathered around the fireplace when we shared the news that our family was growing. We'd been married for a while and the suggestions about a baby had pretty much stopped when we shared our news. "This is the best present," my niece squealed when she learned a baby cousin might share her birthday!  That certainly was a busy, happy, wonderful chapter of my story.

It was decades later, but again on a Sunday when my son arrived home with news. Excitedly, nervously and a little scared, he and his wife discussed plans for their next chapter. They referred to me as Grandma and we celebrated the beginning of a wonderful new chapter for me, too.

It was a Friday night and I was exhausted, but the end of the school year was in sight. "I'll bring home Chinese," he offered. It was my last shrimp and snow peas and our last dinner together. In an instant, a very different, alone, chapter of my life began.  I was too sad to write for a long while; but I'm trying hard to write that chapter now.