Month: January 2018

My Cooking Class Is Ending Soon

Days Remaining to Finish Cooking Class:  43                                                       Average Grade:  97.3%

I’m getting a bit closer to finishing this cooking class, thank goodness.  I finished Unit 6 and it seems with each unit there is more information covered.  

When it comes time to take the final I hope I don’t screw it up.  As I said in an earlier post, I was just an average student in high school.  I got A’s & B’s in the classes that I enjoyed like English, French and Journalism but, my grades in Math & Science were always sub-par..  

I will spare you the dirty details because it was NOT pretty, especially the incident where my Dad had to meet with my Math teacher AND the Principle.  

I didn’t perform much better in college.

Freshman year I attended Indiana University in Bloomington, and lived in the dorms.  My roommate, that I was randomly assigned, was what we called back then …… A NERD.  That was 30+ years ago and being a nerd, or geek for that matter, was NOT cool.  Not like it is today.

I didn’t appreciate what I could have learned from her if I had given that friendship a chance.  She studied in our room, went to bed early and got up before the sun hit the windows.  Ugh.

I had a few things working against me with regards to being a successful student on a campus as large as IU.

I was on the work-study program so I had to find a job on campus.   Working took time away from studying but, if I’m completely honest, I just didn’t know how to manage my time and I really wasn’t prepared academically . 

Additionally, I had another large distraction in the form of a boyfriend.  He was two years older than I and had already been on campus for two years.  He lived in a fraternity as well.  

 Uht – Oh 🙁

That was definitely not a good combination for a young, impressionable girl who was just an average student coming right out of high school.  

By the time I went back to IU in the fall of my second year, I was on probation.  

At the end of my third semester I was, politely, asked to leave.  🙁                               Not a shining moment in my life.  

I returned home, found a job and attend the local Indiana-Purdue branch.  

That is where I, eventually, found my path in life.  It was never on my radar but I remember that day so vividly.   I fell in love with, what has been my profession for the last 32 years.

When I finally found my “calling,” as they say, I found out what my true passion was and that’s when I really started to excel.

  That passion was Dental Laboratory Technology. 

I graduated from IPFW in 1985 as a Registered Graduate of the program, (not everyone who graduated passed the RG test), and have owned a dental lab since 1986.  My profession consists of five areas:  dentures, partials dentures, ceramics, crown & bridge and orthodontics.  

My specialty and expertise is in dentures and partials. 

This is one of my finished cases from many years ago.  This case was extremely unusual, as the patient paid extra for the diamonds set in the gold teeth. 

Yes, real diamonds.

I know ……….. But this is the profession that spoke to me!

"Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire"

What can I say?

My two daughters, on the other hand, managed to graduate from well respected colleges, and with flying colors…………….  

The first time around!

My Little Booger with her Bachelors Degree from St. Francis

My younger daughter graduated with Honors from Saint Francis College recently with her MBA.  

My older daughter graduated, almost simultaneously, with Bachelor Degrees in Math & Mechanical Engineering from Saint Marys College and Notre Dame, respectively.  She did that in only five years.  

Big Booger & her husband with their Engineering Degrees from Notre Dame

I don’t know how they did it.  

You know the saying, “Maybe if I knew then what I know now,” I would have applied myself.  I give them props for sure!  

Back to my impending final …………….

As I was talking to Little Boog last night, she had asked about my class and how it was going.  

I was whining about the amount of information and the tedious assignments required and she reminded me of what I used to tell them growing up.

I would say this to them with regard to, just about, everything.  

Whenever they were closing in on the end of the school year ……..

Or finishing out the intensely competitive golf season …………..

Or heading toward the end of an extremely long and grueling skating season ………….

I would always say to them:

"Finish Strong!"  

She didn’t actually say “finish strong” to me but she did say, “Mom, what did you always tell us?”  

I just had to laugh ………..

I have a feeling that I have “coined” a phrase they will be using on their own children one day!