MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 2024 - IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR

 MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 2024 - IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR

When I was seventeen

It was a very good year

It was a very good year for small-town girls

And soft summer nights

We'd hide from the lights

On the village green

When I was seventeen

Frank Sinatra “It Was a Very Good Year”

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“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” William Shakespeare Hamlet - act II

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“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

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For those of you who read this blog, I can change topics.  And, I freely admit that some days are much (much, much) better than other days.  

This week, still tying in with the New Year - 2024, I’m going to do some reflections that mesh with “It was a Very Good Year.

Somewhat with the first verse of It was a Very Good Year (above), I’m starting with High School today.

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Through much (most?) of my life, I’ve been kind of oblivious to what goes on around me.  I remember reading “Giants in the Earth” by Ole Edvart Rølvaag in an English literature class.  In one scene, the man character climbs a rope as his wife gives birth to a child.  I saw that as the character wanted to see the baby and the birth.  The reality was that the character was considering suicide - his wife hated the prairie, wanted to go home to Norway, and had become critically depressed.  (Boy did I miss that!!)

As I think back, life in the Dakotas was terrible - sod houses, no food, no warmth, no money, depression all around.  And, his wife had gone over the edge into insanity.  Sure he wanted to end it all (but I thought he just wanted to see the birth and his wife. 

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In High School, I became a real “nerd”.  I was the founder and president of the Jefferson High School Chess Club (can’t get too much more of a geek than that). I remember seeing a classmate who was very introverted and making a note NEVER to be boring.

And, let’s face it - tuba players are just not very sexy!!!

I don’t remember when I adopted the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote about “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm” - but that has been an attribute of Bruce White / Karen White.  Be enthusiastic, and NEVER be boring.  (I know there are times I am very boring - oh well).

I wasn’t a good student.  I had a 2.83 GPA (where a 3.00 is a “B”average).  I wasn’t in the National Honor Society (both our children and my ex-wife were NHS members).  I wasn’t an athlete.  I was in plays and in the choir - but never in a leading role.  (Somehow I amassed enough points to qualify for membership in the National Thespian Organization).  I didn’t really date.   Although I wasn’t boring, I had limited social skills.  I went to prom - maybe my one and only real date - and that was with a foreign exchange student.  

I wasn’t quite a religious zealot, but I was the President of my church youth group.  In the summer before college, I “dated” one of the girls from a similar group. I was “smitten” - (she wasn’t).  

I had friends - but no real close buddies.  I went to a few house parties where drinking occurred, but I didn’t drink (and I was very judgemental of those that did drink alcoholic beverages!!!).  I didn’t have a car and walked to school (or talked my parents into a ride).  This was before cell phones and before computers - but who would I call anyway and who would I text or email?  I suppose I was a loner - not a good description, but I didn’t really care.  

I went to one class reunion.  My college friend (GM) who was a high school classmate really goaded me for not going to more class reunions.  Nope - not my thing.

But,  when I was seventeen, it was a very good year.

It was a very good year for naive, immature, teenage boys who didn’t have a clue

They walked to school

And never had a date

It was a very good year!!!

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, © JANUARY 8, 2024