Sharon Casaletto:
CLASS OF 1975
Newark High SchoolClass of 1975
Newark, CA
Memorial High SchoolClass of 1975
Newark, CA
M.D. Silva Junior High SchoolClass of 1971
Newark, CA
Sharon's Story
Life
I went to Graham School for 2nd thru 6th grades, M.D. Silva for Junior High School and then Newark High. In High School, I was on the girls field hockey team and volleyball team. I graduated from High School in 1975.
Right after high school I went to Cal State Hayward for 2 years but I dropped out when I had to declare a major. I just didn't know what I wanted to be. I ended up working for a Pet Supply Company and learning about computers there. After working as a computer operator for a few years, I decided to go back to school and get a degree in Computer Science. I had finally found my calling. I've been working with computers ever since.
I'm married with 2 kids. We moved to Illinois 5 years ago to get out of the rat race in the Bay Area. There are so many people in the Bay Area now it seemed all of my free time was spent waiting in line; at the grocery store, McDonald's, the gas station, on the freeway, you get the idea. There just weren't enough hours in my day to waste them like that.
Now I live in a more rural area NW of Chicago. There are not as many people as in the Bay Area and nature is in my backyard, literally. I live on the edge of a forest preserve and right next to a pond. It's a great location for hiking in the summer and cross country skiing, ice skating and snow shoeing in the winter.
I work full time as a software architect for a company located in Palo Alto, CA. One of those internet startups that survived the tech bust in the early 2000s. Since I moved to Illinois, I work remotely from home and fly back to CA once a month to work in the office. It's a great situation that allows me to be home when the kids get home from school and still frequently see my family and friends in the Bay Area. I still have family in Newark so I visit there frequently.
We went to Hawaii this summer ...Expand for more
to celebrate my turning 50. My husband and I got married in Hawaii. It was nice to finally return and share our memories with the kids.
School
I find myself thinking about Mrs. Blackhart quite a bit. When I was a freshman or sophomore, I had her for a required English class. My reading and writing skills were above the level of the class, so she tried to introduce me to Shakespeare. She would give me an assignment to read some chapters of a Shakespeare play and then we would meet once a week at lunch to discuss what I had read.
I'm sure she was disappointed that I didn't understand alot of what Shakespeare wrote. It was hard to decipher his messages when most of them require an adult understanding of people and relationships. I left the experience frustrated that I found it so hard to understand what Shakespeare wrote and I thought I would never like Shakespeare.
Then about 10 years ago, a friend at work talked me into joining a group of co-workers who met once a week at lunch to read and discuss Shakespeare. This friend was quite persistent, so I decided to go to one session to see how it was. Well, I guess I had matured enough to really understand the nuances of Shakespeare's writing. I stayed with the group until we had read virtually everything we could by Shakespeare and Marlowe (another writer of Shakespeare's time).
Now I'm slowly introducing my oldest daughter to Shakespeare. I don't ask her to read his plays yet, but I've taken her to a few of his comedies. There is also a fictional book called The King of Shadows which is a good introduction to Shakespeare for kids her age. This experience has turned out to be something she likes that we are both doing together.
So Mrs. Blackhart, believe it or not, your efforts were not wasted on me. It just took awhile for me to appreciate them. Thank You.
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