What makes me tick? Or what has made me tick for the past 70 years?
1. Family -- My mother was a widow with three kids. I was the youngest. My grandma and my aunt helped raise me. Every Sunday, we had a large midday meal, either at my grandma and aunt's house, or at ours. Sometimes we had guests, too. It was fancy table-setting time, using our dining room table, usually at full extension. Those were great (and delicious!) times. My husband and I have two daughters, and we spend holidays with them, and with two sisters who are around our daughters' age and who have no family in this area. We always have a great time at these celebrations. Our daughters and I also do things together, and we have a lot in common. It's not as frequent as we would like, as both our daughters work. We have fun when we do get a chance to do things together.
2. Service -- My aunt instilled in me an ethic of public service. She was a public health nurse, and the Director of Health Information for the State of Florida in the 1950s and early 1960s. The first time I went to college, back in the 1960s, I joined a service sorority. I served as first vice president, in charge of the service projects of our chapter, and it was during that time of service that our chapter won the sorority's most prestigious award for the second time in a row. I was a registered nurse for a while, until we had three deaths in the family in a rather short period of time, and I burned out. I also served in the uniform of the United States Coast Guard, mostly in the reserve, but I did do a total of over two years of active duty, too.
3, Learning -- I went back to college at the age of 60, and earned two post-baccalaureate degrees, summa cum laude with honors in the majors. Then I went on to earn a second master's degree. My first was in library science, in 1970. I lost that path when library jobs dried up in the early 1970s, in a recession. (That was also in line with my ethic of service.)
4. Staying busy -- I always have said that I would rather be busy than bored. When I worked as temporary office staff, if I had nothing to do, I would look for something to do. Sometimes I bugged the boss until I got something to work on, as when I volunteered to update and organized one company's publications, having much experience doing so as a yeoman in the Coast Guard. They say women never really retire, and I'm an example of that. My husband is retired, and is quite very retired. He earned it. Me, I stay busy.
5. Books -- I read books. I also write them. I have two published, and I'm working on a third at this time (along with other things I'm into). Years ago, when my husband and I were looking for a new home, he said we needed a house with a library because we have so many books. I said, "No, what we need is a library with living quarters." I have so many books, and need to refer to many of them from time to time, that I have my bookshelves in my office organized by the Dewey Decimal systerm (well, I was a librarian once upon a time)!
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