When I was LittleNakedjen, back in the dark ages of last century, before there were computers in classrooms, when children actually had to use an encyclopedia for research and wrote their research papers by checking lots and lots of books out of the library and then hand wrote them on lined college-ruled paper...does anyone even remember those days?
In those days, back in the last century, I lived for a time of my life, in a very small farming community called Seaford, Delaware. Honestly, there was nothing particularly noteworthy about Seaford other than that it had lots of chicken farmers, corn fields as far as you could see, and we were the Nylon Capital of the World! Yes, the WORLD! The DuPont company had decided to locate their Nylon plant in the corner of the town and made Seaford quite the booming metropolis. Not. Especially if you were the child who had grown up in Washington, D.C. Trust me, Seaford was the boondocks.
So much so that the educational offerings in the public school system in Seaford left me, well, bored to tears. I just wasn't challenged. At all. I know that some of the teachers just found me to be impossible, but others decided that rather than even try to teach me, they'd just have me help them teach the other students and grade all the papers. I will give credit to Albert and Joanna right now for actually being determined enough to find a better solution for my educational challenges. It wasn't easy. Let's remember we were in the Nylon Capital of the World. We were not in New York City.
It just so happened, though, that there was a private school located in a town about 24 miles away. Not too terribly far, but not exactly down the street and the Nylon Capital of the World did not offer public transportation of ANY kind in those days. This private school was absolutely everything that the public schools in the Nylon Capital were not. It was challenging. It required you to do homework. It expected you to use a library. It had teachers who wanted you to learn. And best of all? One of those teachers happened to live in the Nylon Capital of the World and was willing to drive me to school with her each and every day.
And that is how it happened that in January of my sixth grade year, I found myself attending The Country School in Easton, Maryland. Where I had to wear a uniform for gym class, where I couldn't wear jeans or pants to class any longer, where I got to speak conversational French in class and where I am quite sure I received the critical roots for my PhD in Google. I wrote more research papers in my three years at the Country School than in all my educational years that followed.
So all of that was a long way of telling you that when I was in the sixth grade I went to a school that was 24 miles away from home. And today? Today I walked 24 miles in preparation for the marathon that I'm going to do in two weeks. Yes, two weeks. I'm almost there. And guess what?
I'm absolutely ready. I can not only walk to school, I can turn around and walk home again. That's how ready I am. Bring it on!
