Some of the most meaningful events or experiences that have occurred in my life since graduating from SCHS include...
Post SCHS, I went off to Southern Oregon College in Ashland, and became so disappointed that I couldn't even get core classes for my pre-reqs for Wildlife Biology, the field I had chosen. I lasted 2 semesters and found that I was wasting my parents money on out-of-state tuition for classes I couldn't use later. Some were fun though, if not challanging, like my Logics class, great stuff!!! Anyway, I dropped out, went off to Europe to hitch-hike around for a year. I went alone but found people here and there to travel with. I saw nearly all of the western European countries and crossed over into Africa and then to what was then Yugoslavia. Had a motorcycle accident in Germany and had to stop for awhile to heal, fell in love with a guy at a U.S. Airforce base and married him. While in Germany, I witnessed a miracle healing of a child's leg, something that made me recognize that perhaps there is a God who loves us, something that I'd given up on during the 60's. Returning home, life got 'rough', we got a divorce and I started my 'career' of sorts, finding my way into what was then called Data Processing. I then married a man I met while working at GTE Lenkurt, he had 2 kids and we ended up getting married. What I came to find out about him is that he was an alcoholic wife-beater and I found myself in a situation that I'd never even seen in the movies. We transfered out to Colorado in 1980, a few months after my dad died, and it became too dangerous for me to stay in the same house so I moved. He stalked me but I had enough friends to help so was safe until he eventually moved back to California. I remained single for 23 years, not trusting my ability to choose a partner. I bought 5 acres and designed and had built a small house (1900 sq ft) in 1983. It's earth-bermed, solar water, passive solar, I settled to start my existance as a small scale farmer. And while other women were raising families, I was rock climbing, mountain climbing, water-skiing my butt off, para-sailing, running, weight lifting, traveling, catamaraning, snow skiing, fishing, riding my horses all over the Colorado mountains, farming, and learning life basics like how to shear fiber animals, spin the fibers and make things out of it... yeah, real earth-mother stuff. I grew and raised my own food and learned what was healthy in an ever-increasing toxic environment.
I bumped through a couple of relationships, no desire for permanence. Then I decided to start bicycling seriously in 1989. What an addict I became, trained for and rode in Colorado's Ride the Rockies, two years, the MS150 3 times, Front Range Century ride and the Elephant Rock Century Ride. (century rides being no less than 100 miles) 1991 changed that direction, I had a head-on collision (not my fault) which crushed a knee, shattered my nose, some other injuries and caused a bruised heart sending me to the hospital for 4 days. The knee injury kept me off my bike for that kind of intense cycling, so I started riding my horses more and did triathalons where I only had to run 10k. I got more serious about my 'career', and did well enough. Then in 1998, day after Christmas, I had a life-changing event. ANother head-on collision (I've since removed the bulls eye from the front of my truck), where a 16 year old boy lost control and hit me, doing 85 mph. Total impact of 120mph. It shoved one of the batteries into the windshield of my 3/4 ton Deisel truck, which was totalled. We both lived, I broke both bones near my wrist, and a tiny bone in one foot, trashed my neck and back. I did a lot of chiropractic, therapy, acumpuncture and can say that I've returned far more than the 75% that was predicted.
The life-changing part is the pre-accident message I got, within 10 minutes before the accident, I saw 3 'statements' in my mind that indicated that there was going to be a bad accident, that the truck would be totalled, that I would not be going to Arizona (as planned to be in my girlfriend's wedding). (con't)
I shook it off thinking, 'wow! THAT was wierd!' and minutes later a Ford Explorer was kissing my windshield. I remember climbing out of my broken truck and trying to get to the other driver who was moaning and someone scooped me from behind and turned me around and took me away, despite my protests that I had to go help that boy. To the hospital again, but I refused to stay, I have responsibilities at home here, y'know. For some reason my focus was on that 16 year old boy. I called the family to reassure them that I was okay, for them to concentrate on him since he was still in the hospital. The friendship that developed was amazing, I went to court on his behalf and just asked him that he would use this experience in a way that would help his peers. He's 26 now and lost a leg in Iraq but he's a good kid. That accident caused me to re-evaluate my life, direction, purpose, and any meaning there could be for my continued existance since I'd escaped death on several ocassions (not mentioned here). It didn't seem accidental (no pun intended) that I continued to breathe air. I began to examine God, and finally just said, "I give up. Do something with me. If you've been trying to get my attention, you've got it." and therein began a friendship, a love affair that continues. Everyone has a journey, this is my personal one. I'm glad my stubborn nature gave up for the first time in my Scandinavian life.
