I write my story here to encourage parents, teachers, and friends never to “give up” on young people.
It was 1966 at the Michigan State University GED testing center. There I sat with my ninth-grade education, obese, with low self-esteem. Internally I knew I was dumb. The only person who insisted I had a good brain was an elderly handicapped woman where I worked as a nurse aide. She’d pressed and even nagged me to try for a General Education Degree then go to college.
From the time I was a child I was told I was stupid, then because of overeating for comfort, I became overweight. Then, being in the poor and obese category, other children began treating me as lesser; last to be picked in the spelling bee and not picked at all for team membership during sports play.
Interestingly, at that time to pass the GED, there were four areas to be tested: English, Social Sciences, History, and Mathematics. The BIG Math! My last class was in eighth grade! I opened the test of 150 questions with five possible answers from which to choose. I struggled with the first seven questions and came to the end of my knowledge base. Well, my math was good enough to know I had 143 to go!
I had a brain freeze! Slowly I allowed myself to pause and think. Somewhere around a year before this test came into my life I was determined to “self-educate” by reading current news magazines. One article had mentioned that when faced with a test choice of five possible answers that numbers 3 and 4 were most likely correct. Voila!
I started checking three 3’s, then three 4’s. Then to make certain this wasn’t too obvious a ploy, I put in a 1, 2, and 5.
Two weeks later my letter of congratulations arrived! I passed and received my GED degree. From there on to college, and eventually a long and satisfying career with my PhD in Education and Psychology. It is now, at age eighty-one, that I will retire with love and gratitude in my heart.
