Do you have a role model? Did you have a role model when you were a kid? Was there someone in particular that influenced you to go one way or the other with your life? Did you reach the goals that you set as a young person? (Let's all take a moment to prepare our answers)
OK, I'm ready: No. No. Yes. No.
Role model? No. I have women I admire and learn from, but I think the women older than me never thought about being role models, of reaching out to younger women and challenging them. Sharon Wagar is probably the closest to a role model, but she's also my best friend - does that count?
Role model when I was a kid? No. When I was growing up, pretty much all the women I knew were housewives till the day they died. They just did the basics and enjoyed themselves the rest of the time. My mother taught a few piano lessons on and off - sometimes for survival, sometimes for spending money - but she hated teaching and couldn't wait to quit. She was very capable - decorating, gardening, sewing, crafts, entertaining - and she was a spectacular pianist. I learned so many skills from her because I was interested in many of the same things. I wanted to be and do something significant in my life, but my parents thought I would never cook, never drive, and that it was a waste to educate a woman. They felt quite strongly I should marry my high school sweetheart and teach piano in the basement. (I have thought of this many times after I married my college sweetheart and was teaching piano in the basement). I don't think the women of my mother's generation ever thought of being role models.
Someone who influenced me? Yes. I had a teacher in Gr. 11 that I really impressed me. I was in her Honours English class. Every Friday we had a coffee house - no lights, candles, guitars, Leonard Cohen, poetry - it was so creative, challenging and cool. I was teaching my first piano lessons at the time. With my first earnings I bought a suede jacket and a guitar so I could be cool too. When the spring musical was cast, I got on the costume crew headed up by the English teacher. I learned to design clothes, sew masses of ruffles, use a curling iron, plan wardrobe changes etc. The crowning achievement for me was designing and creating the bridal dress for the female lead - I was forever changed. Later this teacher recommended me as the only student to represent my high school on the Hudson's Bay fashion council, on which I served my Gr. 12 year - that was a great experience.
Reach the goals I set as a young person? No. These were my goals: become a fashion designer, visit Paris, and do missions work in Africa. I still haven't made it to Paris or Africa. I don't really care about Paris anymore (now I want to see the gardens of England) and I will get to Africa - hopefully in the next couple of years. Funny story about the fashion designer part. I wanted to go to UBC but my mother wanted me to go to a Christian university so I visited Oral Roberts University and got a scholarship. I left in September with a suitcase full of new clothes I had made myself to take fashion design at ORU. In 2 days I learned two things: 1. ORU didn't have a fashion design program 2. if you get a music scholarship, you have to study music. So I studied music, met the love of my life, got 3 music degrees and have enjoyed teaching hundreds of people, my own kids included.
I had a dear friend named Dorothy Williams who passed away a couple of years ago. She was a teacher, a missionary to Africa and Taiwan, church planter, Bible college founder and president who preached all over the world and wrote books. She also was a fantastic knitter ( like her best friend and Scrabble partner Fran Huebert) and sewed her own clothes with fabrics she collected from around the world. Before Dorothy died, I asked her if she had met all the goals she had set for her life. She snorted, then said she had never set any goals. She just did whatever anyone asked her to do: one thing led to another and she ended up with an adventure-filled, satisfying, God blessed life.
That's a pretty good role model.
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