Story in a jar

I have recently caught the family history bug and have tried to use a little portion of my spare time looking for names to expand my family tree. As I do this, I realize the neglect given my own personal history. For Mother's Day this year, Morgan came home from school with a "Story In a Jar," accompanied by the following poem.

In this jar you will find,

Story starters of all kind.

Every night when you tuck me in,

Pick a slip and let the story begin.

Tell me about your life as a kid,

I want to know all that you did.

I hope you know that I love you.

You make me happy with all you do.

I've gone through a couple of the story starters with Morgan, but honestly I tell a better story when writing than when talking. So I thought in my efforts to improve recording my personal history I would work on some of the "Story In a Jar" here. It won't necessarily be the most entertaining or funny, but I feel it's something I should do. Here we go...

Q: "Were you ever given any special awards for your studies or school activities?"

A: Funny that this is the first slip I pulled, because I am such a nerd. If you haven't heard me mention that before, then you probably weren't listening.

I'm not sure this qualifies as an award, but it was something I was always proud of. In seventh grade, my English teacher submitted a story I wrote to the Reflections contest [at least I think that's what it was called back then -- now I'm not totally sure]. My story was selected for publication, and I was invited to attend a special program where each person published received a certificate and a copy of the book. I remember after they called my name and gave me a certificate, I was walking off the stage and a woman told me that mine was her favorite story. That was a big deal to me then and gave me confidence that writing was one of my talents.

My senior year I received a couple of honors that also meant a lot to me. I worked hard in school. Jeremy likes to tell the kids how smart I am, but I always feel I need to qualify that with the fact that I worked at it. Some things came easily, but other things didn't. I studied, I read, I stayed on top of my homework, I asked questions when I didn't understand. So I felt like my work payed off at the end of my senior year when I was named English Studies Student of the Year and Social Studies Student of the Year. I also respected the teachers of those classes a great deal, and I deeply appreciated their recognition. Somehow I also got the Attendance Award, which still baffles me.

When I headed off to college, I was able to start at BYU with a half scholarship. There were times I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to keep it, but after my sophomore year they upgraded it to a full scholarship. Not only was this an honor, but since Jeremy and I got married that summer, it most likely saved our poor college finances from totally biting the dust. In the end, I managed to graduate cum laude.