Years of My Life, 1965

A Journey from 1944 to … Now

1965

And so my senior year—at last!

(So much had gone so very fast.)

My major—English—now complete.

(Not really such an easy feat.)

And student teaching lay head—

And I’ll confess I felt some dread.

Could I survive it? And succeed?

Yes, I was frightened, I concede.

To West Geauga High School in

The winter term I went. I’d been

Afraid, right from the very start.

But those young kids? Straight to my heart.

I loved those classes—tried my best—

And passed this rough initial test.

But now arrived another fear:

What would I find to do next year?

In this my parents had a stake:
They’d taken teaching jobs at Drake.*

The house where I had grown was sold.

Would I be out there in the cold?

I got accepted—Kansas, Yo.

But realized I could not go:

No scholarship, financial aid—

So here is where I sighed. And stayed.

Two interviews—that's all I had.**
And things were looking pretty bad ...

*Drake University; Des Moines, Iowa
**Garrettsville and Aurora—both nearby.