I WILL CONTINUE TO WRITE

THIS.

This article I can SO IDENTIFY WITH, posted on a FB Page, is why I will never be silent.

(https://medium.com/@davidvienna/the-teacher-everyone-feared-taught-me-to-fight-back-321d7bb5937e)

People can chastise me. People can scream at me. People can tell me, "YOU do NOT get to talk!". People can avoid me. People can abandon me.

But people cannot silence me.

I.W.I.L.L.C.O.N.T.I.N.U.E.T.O.W.R.I.T.E.

A diary kept me sane in a childhood home that was crazy.

I never "feared a teacher" - I never feared anyone: if anything, people feared me ... and I made sure they were kept on their toes. LOL. I could't afford not to be tough growing up.

High School teachers, Mrs. Borg & Mrs. Irving, both encouraged me to continue with my witty and sarcastic literary assignments - most of my handed in assignments focused on the Vietnam War at the time (my choice of writing, not the teachers'); I Aced the classes. Because they allowed me to be my lovable witty and sarcastic self (and I think they knew my home situation ... small town, and all), their classes were the only classes I actually attended. They knew my writing was keeping me grounded. But, Mrs. Irving KNEW me - she saw into my soul. When I married before my Senior year started, and immediately got pregnant my 'honeymoon week', she told me, "Val, don't drop out of school. I'm starting a Night Course Class in my class twice a week: come! I'm signing you up. Come." I went. When she saw Bob walking me to class, she was glad to see I chose well in love. She and Bob knew each other - small town. I did well in her course, and graduated with a bona fide Graduation Diploma. It was mailed to me; I was heavily pregnant by then and didn't want to chance going into labor crossing the stage to receive it. But, every time I look at that diploma, I think of the teacher that KNEW me, and liked me enough to help me succeed.

Bob & Mrs. Irving grew me up.

A journal kept me focused when I was a young wife and mother.

Blogging helped me share my life for 16 years (grandparenting/parenting, home education, gardening, raising/butchering chickens, several homes renovations, life with a wolf - a real 4-legged wolf, not just my Bob. LOL, road trips, 2nd time around grandparenting) - Blogging helped me hold it together when my world was shaken in 2018, and totally torpedoed in 2019.

I write because life continues to give me assignments I'd rather not have to endure.

I write because it is liberating.