Margaret Estill:  

ith my beloved friends and classmates, Junior NAACP with Mr. Muse and Mr. (Now Judge) Tanner, dancing, skating parties, being able to hang with adults who listen and respected opinions from those so much younger. These activities gave an importance to all of the students who were in my friendship group. Reconnecting with a few of you from the past has been very important to me. I look forward to hearing from and seeing others who I have been unable to contact. College College was a necessary ingredient to getting to a profession for me. Tacoma General Nursing School and UPS were nightmares; I was a fish out of water experience. College life for me started with Highland Park Community college, Wayne State University and University of Michigan. My undergrad experience was as a married woman; I started without children and when I finished 4 years later I had two children. Both of my children grew up in a college setting. Their father taught at the college level and I tutored chemistry at Highland Park Community College. Both young men learned as we learned. My masters is in Instructional Programming; part of it was learning to program a computer. My sons were taught programming as I learned it; sometimes they taught me what I had taught them. I can remember sitting working for hours on an animation program and just could not get the thing to move. I awaken the next morning to find stuff running all over the screen; my youngest son simply looked over the program that I had written, found an error and corrected it. He was all of about 8 years of age and did not think that he had done anything extraordinary. Workplace I started out as a telephone operator after deciding that nursing was not for me. Relocated to Detroit, my husband's home and worked with Project Read. I could not transfer to Detroit from Pacific Northwest Bell because the telephone company in Detroit did not want to hire someone who was also going to college. I worked at several menial jobs while putting myself through college at Wayne State University. Later, I decided that I should go back for my MA since my sons were in High School. I became an administrator immediately after completing my masters. I was the Assistant Principal at Jamieson Elementary School for four years and the Principal at Ann Arbor Trail Magnet for 14 years. My career has been very rewarding and one that I relinquish with reservations.