Stephanie Reynolds:  

I alway wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. Realized at a young age, by 6th grade atleast. Ms. Norma Johnson of Pulaski Elementary was great inspiration, as were some teachers before her, and some since, but she was driven by my going to Berea College, her alma mater. She offered for me to even live with her while attending if need be, when the time came. How awesome is that? She knew that I came from a very poor family and yet saw the potential in me to be a great prospective teacher at grade 6. Funny how others see us so much differently than we see ourselves. My family and friends thought I would become a teacher as well. My dad pushed us to do good in school as he knew that an education was the only way out of poverty and although not the source of happiness, a helpful tool, in that there would be less struggle financially atleast in our adult lives. My mother, so supportive would help me study till she wanted to pull her hair out, as I would get many wrong and guessed answers before I got the right one. I'd ask her the first letter of the answer, then the second, usually she could at the very least, laugh in exasperation at me. My attention span............not so great! My paternal grandmother, Mamaw still asks me every time I see her when I am going back to school as I have yet to become a teacher at the age of 31. (her father, my great, grandfather Alfred, taught, as one of his many trades held to raise 11 children, he was also a farmer and ran a country store, among other things) ...Expand for more