My Typing Experiences
This week I turned 91 and I am still up early mornings writing my memoirs on my laptop for a book about my journey.This morning, I was thinking about the sheer joy of my fingers gliding over a keyboard and the experiences I’ve had over the years of doing so—and this is what I wrote:
Did a teacher ever say something so negative about you that you determined you would not let it be fulfilled in your life? Or better still, did you have a teacher who believed in you– who said words of encouragement often –and you worked hard to see that come to pass?
I had both in high school. I’m not knocking teachers as I have had some wonderful ones. One of my daughters later taught in that same school where the “negative” teacher discouraged me and by then policies had really changed for the better.
I was in the tenth grade in our small Florida town, and I wanted to learn to type — to write faster than writing by hand on notebook paper. Today it sounds ridiculous but in that high school a student had to be a senior to take a class in office skills. My mother rose up to do something to change that. I don’t know if they had a school board in those days. But on my first day of school as a sophomore, I was in Miss Smith’s typing class with all her senior students.
She was pretty mad at me for being there. Over and over, she’d say, “You will never learn to type fast enough to hold down a job.”I determined I would, even though I didn’t have a typewriter at home to practice on. Each class period we exercised our fingers by typing, “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.” The idea was that repetitive typing of this phrase would help the typist use the full range of finger motions.
The next year Mother made arrangements for me to go to Tallahassee to live with my Aunt Ruth at her boarding house so I could get a broader education. By the time I entered twelfth grade another teacher entered my life who became my number one encourager, Miss Beckett.
She introduced me to a program called Diversified Cooperative Training that allowed students with good grades to attend high school in the mornings but in the afternoons, they could get occupational work experience. Because I could type, she wanted to place me in the Florida Department of Advertisement. In those days this state-run agency was promoting Florida as a family friendly state and a great vacation attraction. So, I typed lots of letters. It suited me well.
Miss Beckett talked to my bosses and evaluated me often. Her pats on the back and words of encouragement kept me going. She even took me and some classmates on a couple of Saturday field trips.
After graduation I stayed at that job while attending Florida State University–with only one interruption.
In 1953, during my sophomore year, five of us FSU gals decided we needed to do our patriotic duty and work for the Navy until the Korean War was over. After all, our guy classmates had been in the military since they turned 18.
My friends and I went to Gainesville to take the challenging typing test to qualify us for a job. I passed! Off we went to Washington, D.C. to work. Fortunately, the war ended in late July. In the fall I returned to college and was blessed to get my old job back with the Advertising Department— a typing job that I kept even after I earned my journalism degree and got engaged.
As the years passed my typing ability gave me the opportunity to write hundreds of articles as a newspaper feature writer and a freelance magazine author. Then 38 years ago my first book was published, How To Pray For Your Children.
Since then, 30 more books have been published, 20 co-authored with my friend, Ruthanne Garlock. I had the privilege to interview numerous interesting people while writing those manuscripts. I used to drag a portable typewriter with me when I travelled in the States. Once in Germany I borrowed a hotel typewriter for an article Ihad to write.
Today with laptop computers, smart phones, the Internet, e-mail and other technology at our fingertips, it is hard for some to imagine what it was like for writers when I first started. There were no cut/paste/save/ keys on a typewriter, so I used carbon paper, scissors, tape and plenty of paper to write my book drafts.
Oh, there were plenty of discouragements. My first book proposal was flatly rejected. Two years later that same publisher printed my first book– but on a different subject.
I am thankful for the many editors and publishers who put what I wrote into print. And for those who bought our books. I am also eternally grateful for the people who allowed me to tell their stories—trials as well as triumphs, such as I recorded in Miracles Happen When You Pray.That one made it to a book club edition.
I thank God for those who were encouragers along my journey. And the discouragers? Well, perhaps unknowingly they caused me to work harder because they didn’t think I could do it. Discouragers and Encouragers. We’ve all had them.
I am sure you have discovered as I have that we can rise above the discouragers and with God’s help go achieve His destiny for us.
Prayer: I want to thank You, my Heavenly Father for the gift of writing You planted in me. Thank You for my loving Savior, Jesus Christ, who died for me, and for the Holy Spirit, my Comforter and Teacher. Lord, I do want to thank You for all those who encouraged me on my life’s long journey. May I be ever mindful to encourage others. I pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Scripture: Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you also are doing. (I Thes. 5:11 NASB)
But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:13 NASB)
Note: The names of the two teachers have been changed.
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