Joseph Gardner:  

didn't happen due to "biology blues" (Again, that was my parents' decision.). I finally got it together jr. and sr. years and had good seasons. I was in the choir all 4 years as a 2nd alto. I was one of only 2 people in my class to be in it all 4 years. I had great respect for our director Mrs. M. The adjectives I use to describe her are brilliant and elegant and I tried to emulate her on those characteristics. Ms. K., our director during my sr. year, had large shoes to fill but looking back, I think she did the best that she could (I see both of them from time to time at my store job; they're doing well.). Did I have crushes during that time? Yes I did, but I'm not in the habit of discussing them. The school Q&A in this site has a question of "If you could change something, what would it be?" It didn't have my answer of getting more sleep. I was up 'til ~11 at night with homework and then would have to get up at 5:15am to get ready for school. I had to fight to stay awake in class although it often depended on the type/subject of class. I was also well known for my small handwriting but it's larger these days. I have the entire Jr. year's homework assignments, including snow days & ring ceremony day, on one page! College I started Lake Erie College in Aug. of 1986. I moved into the dorm the day after I gave my first blood donation. I was wondering if that would make me tired, but it didn't. The first semester, I would get up a little after 6, take my shower, do my morning stretchout and pushups and then go to breakfast. By the 2nd semester, I slept in until I had to get ready for class. It didn't take me long to find the weight room and reestablish my workout routine. My dormmates wanted me to play field hockey, but I wanted to settle into college life first. We freshmen had to undergo "freshman-sophomore night" which was basically freshman initiation. I had undergone freshman initiation at OLE, so I knew how to roll with it. I played basketball and was the only person from my dorm to do so. I was also the only frosh although I was chronologically older than the team's only soph. by ~ a month. There were 8 of us to start and then one of us went APA (Academic Program Abroad). I spent most of the time on the bench. This was discouraging because one of us had never played before and she always went in before I did. I was a slowpoke though and that didn't help. I enjoyed being on the team, but I realized that hoops wasn't my forte and decided not to play Soph. year. As it turned out, we didn't have enough players for a team anyway. I played softball both years and did fairly well there. I was also in the choir both years as a 2nd alto. Our director composed a piece for us during my fr. year and that was the first time I sang a world-premiere piece. I wanted to become a certified athletic trainer, but there was no one to study with at LEC so I transferred to CSU. I started in the training room at CSU right away. I became skilled at taping, primarily ankles. I worked as the designated trainer for the softball and volleyball teams. I also helped out with the other sports as well. During the summer between LEC & CSU, I came to terms with my gay female orientation and (perhaps naively) decided I would be out. A couple of the women's coaches told me to "Keep it away from my team! (with one continuing "If I hear you've been sleeping with one of my players, I'll shoot her first and come after you with both guns loaded!")" which didn't make for a comfortable working environment. Then in the middle of my senior year, the head trainer told me he wouldn't recommend my certification because he said that I didn't have enough of a "take charge" aptitude for emergency situations. So at that point I had nothing. I changed my major to General Studies because I had taken a liberal arts smattering of coursework anyway. I only needed a few more classes plus the 3-quarter "residency" in that program. I took creative writing and LOTS of music classes (I almost minored in music.) to finish my degree (B.A.). I also wrote for the campus newspaper. An incident which occured just before I graduated (which didn't affect me directly), too long to describe here, made me decide that I would NOT send any alum contributions to the athletic dept. However, I have returned for softball reunions/fundraisers and was welcomed and accepted there, so I have given to the softball program. I didn't have any idea of what I wanted to do or indeed could do career-wise and so I worked temp jobs until I returned to school for an A.A.S. in Histological Technology. 11 years later, I'm still not yet working as a histotech so, as I mentioned above, I've returned to school at Stark State for a degree in general med lab technology. We'll see what happens. If I were to win the lottery (fat chance of that 'cause I never play), I would return to school and get degrees in English and Music. I don't know if and/or indeed how I'd ever use them, but assuming I was comfortably wealthy from the lottery, I get them for the fun of learning and/or doing it. Workplace It's time for an update in the work bio. I've decided that my best bet and indeed the most practical thing for me to do is to return to the medical field. I'm working on yet another A.A.S. in general medical lab technology; I've seen more openings for general medical lab techs than I have for histotechs but histotechs seem to be catching up. Considering what all I've already done, I should need just the core coursework and the practicum and I should be good to go. Per my discussions with the program director, I'm in good shape. With the shortage of certified histotechs, maybe it'll work out that I'll work part-time in both labs for a full-time job. What finally made me decide to go back into the medical field? First, I discussed career options with a friend of mine and she thought that would be my best option considering my background. Then one night last summer I happened upon one of those Trauma/ER medical shows on TV and I realized that I did enjoy the work I was doing at my former hospital job. Hopefully school will work out; this is a definite To Be Continued....