subject: Chapter 6: The Choice That Changed My Life [print this page] Chapter 6: The Choice That Changed My Life
Chapter 6: The Decision That Changed My Life
As Junior High continued, I became more and more engrosssed in shcool activities and outings with friends. I enjoyed attention from boys and Friday night football games were important to me. I began taking baton lessons and quickly excelled. When try-outs for the band came along, I was chosen as one of the new majorettes. I was elated. We were about to purchase my new majorette boots when the girls from our religious education eighth grade class were offered to visit an open house at Notre Dame Academy in Toledo, Ohio. This was the place from which the sisters who taught us religion each week end came. I knew my friend, Bernadette, was going to go to high school there. She lived with her aunt in the country since her mother had died, when she was young. Her cousin had gone there to high school and had entered the Sisters of Notre Dame. I decided I would go with her to the open house.
I was very impressed with the school. I remember looking at the hard wooden floors which shone with a perfect coat of wax. Everything seemed extremely clean compared to the school I had been attending. Outside were tennis courts and a target for archery all in a lovely garden setting. Sister Marjorida who had come to Our Lady of Lourdes church in Genoa from the very beginning highly encouraged us to think about coming to this all girls school.
After the visit, I couldn't seem to get the school out of my mind. If I would go there, it would mean giving up being a majorette, getting up early and traveling each day to northern Toledo and studying very hard. My mother said that it was my decision and that if I were willing to make the sacrfices she and dad would pay for it. To this day I do not know how I made that decision to change schools. My friends were all surprised and given my spiritual mentality at that time, so was I. The decision seemed to come from a place deep within me that even I did not know very well. The famous quote: "Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled and that made all the difference" seems to summarize the choice best. I often wonder what my life would have been likewithout that unexpected choice.
