Texas Nomad

In my quest to have dreams manifested in 2009, I have joined a group of colleagues in chartering a Toastmasters at our hospital. Being a small numbered, overextended group of pioneers, we have decided to meet every other week on Thursdays at lunchtime. There are three in the group who are former Toastmasters, but the other six of us are just getting our feet wet. This past Thursday I did my "ice breaker" speech where you tell something about yourself.

One dream pounding on my cranium is my voice being heard through written and spoken word. I could have just gotten up and talked about myself off the top of my head, being the format that most have followed to date in their icebreakers, but one of the aspects of my dreams being manifested is partnering with the process. What I invest will have a direct impact on the end result. So, I sat down, and albeit, on the day of (yes, my former speech students, I have preached against this) I whipped up a little speech that I am going to share with you. I think it is a piece of the bigger puzzle that I am putting together, in no sequential order of my own.

Texas Nomad
I remember in fifth grade geography class as we were studying some African desert tribe being introduced to a word for the first time: Nomad. It struck a distinct target in me as an arrow finds a bulls eye. My teacher colored the word further for me as she defined what nomad meant. A wanderer, one without a home, one who goes from place to place in search of a specific "thing". Nomad.

My dad was a Texas high school football coach for 30+ years, which meant that my mother, brother and I were hitched to his wagon, dragged more often than not kicking and screaming to the next place that promised an *auspicious* season. This meant that in my first eighteen years, we moved eight times. My brother and I convinced my mom and dad to be still long enough for us to start and finish at the same high school. My parents, then in their fifties, decided that the West Texas flatland was as good as any to call home. I, being my father's daughter, had learned from birth what it was to go after one's dreams, so I put my training to good use and moved on.

Since I left home at eighteen, I have moved 25 times. 22 of them were within the Texas border. In my twenties I deemed myself the Texas Nomad, having traversed the state in every direction, in search of that "thing" that kept me on the move.

Early on I chased fame as I attended two different universities as a drama major. My second university landed me in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex, where I was introduced to "people of importance" and learned that image was everything. This was a novel concept, considering my upbringing where a person's motives and beliefs were defining factors of who a person was. Now, I was learning a very different take on humanity. It didn't matter what was going on behind closed doors, as long as you were "on" when you opened them. I tried that type of life on for not more than a few months, completely lost, confused, and disgusted by the lack of depth and meaning that definition held. So, I returned to what I knew, because it fit me much better.

My next adventure was the pursuit of money. I graduated with a B.S. in drama and realized that the title spoke for itself. I was too smart and too driven to be a starving actress. So, I got three jobs. I worked my way up in three weeks from part-time salesperson to assistant manager. I quit my other two jobs to begin my climb up the corporate ladder. Within six months, I was managing my own store. Although I was making money, that is all it was. I felt no connection to what I was doing. I missed people. After a horrible downward spiral, I got a phone call from my mom about an alternative teaching program at a college near them. I took the bait and began my new quest for career.

I spent seven years teaching in the public school. I taught in three different towns. As I was gleening the experience needed to become a master teacher, I also found myself in a dual pursuit: love. I met a man, fell in love, and got engaged. Then I realized that I was more in love with the idea of love and banking my hopes more on his potential than on who he was or wanted to be, so the truth won out and we ended the engagement before an ill-tied knot could be fashioned. This loves labor lost as well as the seven year itch of teaching all led to an insatiable need for a larger pursuit.

My father was not only a coach, but was also a Baptist deacon, so church and God were very much an integral part of my identity. I had left my mom and dad's views on church and God with them when I struck out on my own, but I felt a yearning to take up my own search for God. This led to a church that led to a prayer, that led to a conversation, that led me to seminary. I went to find God. I found God and calling.

The story continues from seminary, to teaching in Christian schools to a nationwide road trip that involved the making of a documantary. This road trip led me to Montana, my soft-focused Salvador Dali masterpiece. Now this Texas Nomad is in the process of taking root with more stories to follow.
*indicates the Toastmaters word for the day

The speech is limited to seven minutes. Not much time to sum up almost 38 years. I know I left a lot out, but it may be the start of a longer piece that would give me the chance to include some of the most amazing stories I have had the opportunity to experience. I remember when I was seven, I prayed a prayer I still to this day do not regret: "Please God, don't let my life be boring." God continues to answer that prayer.