Sally Carr:  

HI. Sally T. (McAlpin) Carr here. Just dropping by wanted to say hello and recount parts of my story. Just in case, you only want to read a summary outline here it is: I graduated. Put myself through college. Received AA from BCC in 1977, Lost then love of life, moved to Calif. Received BA from UCR 1981, went to Israel 6-9 mo. Married 1981, had daughter Oct 1983. Returned and attended San Bernadino College for Scientific Illustrator Certification. Worked for Depts. Entomology, Plant Pathylogy and Biochemistry at UC Riverside, while pursuing certification. Returned to UCR as Fine Arts Major but moved to Yakima WA 1986 before completing that degree. Had second daughter Sept 1987. Attended Massage School and became licensed 1996. Divorced. Opened business (Changed by Touch). Remarried April 2000. Attended lots of training related to alternative health care and massage techniques from 1996-present. Hypnotherapy practice for a few years and then formal training Clinical Hypnotherapy. Opened second office in Richland WA CBT Healing Arts, 2005. Closed Yakima Office August 2009. ......................... Now for the longer, more detailed summary. By now I assume we've all experienced an assortment of twists and turns on this journey we know as life. Following is a synopsis of some of the highlights of my own journey since graduating nearly 40 years ago. Senior year of HS I was upset because I wanted to go to college and my parents believed that college was a place for boys not girls. Yes, it's true. Even though of 6 kids only 2 of us had our sites on college my parents stood their ground, and with the wisdom of an adolescent, I took the SATs but did more of a mix and match not paying much attention to the real questions. I remember Priestly asking me how I could have scored so poorly on the math section, to which I replied, "It's easy when you randomly fill in the dots." ..... It wasn't until after graduation when Kitty Mines and I were hanging out, she was attending Burlington County Community College and she'd bring her course work over and I'd do it. You see she had the opposite situation so it worked out nicely, I did well on whatever coursework I turned in. ... So I started to plan to one day put myself through college, I believed there had to be a way. I took a job at Western Union in Morrestown, NJ and moved out of the house. After a several years I decided to take the plunge, so I worked full time and went to school full time. Not much of a social life, but, well, my parent's had never really allowed me to attend social activities so it wasn't really such a strain. By spring of 1977 I'd graduated BCC with honors. Somewhere along that path a roommate had attempted to commit suicide; and that I must admit challenges a young person to place things in perspective. Eventually I moved out and completed my final semester sharing another apartment in Pemberton. With my AA in hand and the world before me, I determined that if I had residency in California, I could attend the University for less then it cost to attend BCC. So off I went to Riverside California, equal distant from the ocean and mountains, and the California Dreamin' Illusion, with Beach Boys tunes dancing through my brain. .... Ahhhhhhhhhhh ......... life is wonderful when you are young and idealistic and the world opens before you. I had fallen in love with a man, Louie Russo, I always thought we'd marry. But my determination to complete my education drove me to kiss him good-bye until I had at least my BA in hand. His plane crashed shortly after I'd arrived in California. And I believed you're never given a chance to love again, not like that... so my focus and intent to complete my education were spurred by the realization of the emotional cost for choosing this path. (For the record I was wrong.. but read on) Determined to prove to my parents I was intelligent and had the ability to succeed in college, I majored in Political Science and Law and Society! I even decided to prove, what I knew already to be true, in HS; I failed Latin, not because I couldn't do it, but because I decided I didn't want to. And when I informed the guidance counselor, "Either let me out and put me into another language course or I'll fail," oh the wisdom of adolescence, I was sure this would cause a shutter and I would have my way. After all, I had declared my intent and was certain that my threat of intentional failure cause her to "Hop to it!" Alas, as you have surely summised, I was mistaken. So in college I took two semesters of Latin, just to prove I could and even began typing Latin texts for the professor in college. Isn't it grand to stand in the place that vindicates yourself in your own mind? Life is wonderful isn't it? As a pre-law major, I loved researching and writing legal briefs. I loved the research. I had fun admist the Supreme Court Justices' arguments. I even experienced the California quakes create tremors in the law library, and watched native Californian's shake, wide-eyed with expectancy of the building transforming into falling rubble. I was naive and had no understanding or fear because "earthquake reality" had never been part of my consciousness. Before graduating I realized that although this writing legal briefs was to me great fun, this was NOT the way I wanted to spend my life. But I was also committed to graduating. I had taken an art class but found the professor was antagnostic toward all non-art majors. When I re-entered the university as an art major, the attitude was completely different, imagine that. So in January of 1981, 10 years after graduating from HS. I held my BA degree in hand. Then I took off for Israel where I spent 6-9 months with my fiance assisting him with Fu...Expand for more