When I was recently moving, I ran across a paper i had written and submitted for a class. Here it is – word for word.

“ To start my story we will have to turn the tables of time back fifteen and a half years. The scene: Mount Hope Hospital, where the youngest of the three pinto girls is born. Oh, what an ugly baby with her flappy ears. To this day I cannot stand my ears.

Between the ages of one to six, nothing out of the ordinary happened to me, good or bad. Oh yes, there was one time when I wouldn’t give my friend next door her doll back. She was good about the whole situation and even decided to give me a new hat – a tunafisn can on the head! Oh, I love that girl.

My grammar school days were even duller than my pre-school days. I went to school every day like a cute little monster, loving every minute of it. I participated in all the neighborhood baseball games. Of course I was the only girl. One day the boys gave me an old, dilapidated ball with which I had just pitched a no hitter. I was quite the tomboy!

There was one sad happening in my life. When I was 10 years old my mother was attacked by cancer and died. I thought she had just been suffering from a liver ailment and was on her way to recovering. Her death came as quite a shock to me. The year after my sister got married and came to live with us in order to take care of me.

In the eight grade, through God’s grace alone, I received an award for the “most outstanding student of the year.” That was really the only good thing that happened to me in grammar school.

The most exciting year of my life was last year. There were the new acquittances: the best that of a Coyle junior. My new experiences: school itself was the greatest plus C.Y.O. which was a high point in my social life. Last but not least, new studies which I enjoyed. During one of my classes, however, I did get a bit tired. The room got a little stuffy and I fell asleep.

High school to me meant that I was given the material with which to mold my character. Here before me was my high school life, my time to construct my future career. A new responsibility swept over me.

After my remaining years at Cassidy, I hope to go to college and one day  enter some phase of the math field.”