Carolyn Lester:  

CLASS OF 1961
Indianapolis, IN
Purdue Univ.Class of 1986
Indianapolis, IN
Bloomington, IN
Bloomington, IN

Carolyn's Story

I did this once, but never finished. Computers and I do not get along, so bear with me. I got married, had 3 children, then decided I was not "complete" so I decided to go to college. That was a hilarious undertaking. I always had trouble making decisions, and college was no different. I had no idea what I wanted to do, I just knew I wanted to take every subject IU offered. I was told by someone that I needed to pick a major...silly fellow. I decided I wanted to be a juvenile court judge. That lasted about a week until I sat up in my bed about 3 AM, smacked myself on the forehead and reminded myself of my intense dislike of dysfunctional kids unless they belonged to me (because then I could sell them to the gypsies or something). After giving it more thought I determined that I did not want business (involved math) nor did I want to explore anything in optometry for the same reason, thought about dentistry for about a minute (didn't want to put my hands in someones mouth). You get the idea. I finally settled on Social Work, Planning and Management. It sounded like fun, even though it did involve a little bit of math. I was off and running, but kept getting side tracked in music. That was ok because I could do all my music as electives. I did the 1 year Masters where you test out of 30 credit hours and take 22 per semester. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS! When I finished, I got a job as a Nursing Home Administrator and did some private practice on the side. I also conducted workshops and did a lot of writing on the side. I had a lot of fun, and some not so much fun. I fell out of a bed nursing home bed when we were blowing up helium balloons while we were snowed in and had nothing to do. We thought it would be fun to have balloon bouquets on each resident's bed or wheelchair when they got up the next morning, which was Valentines day. My head was ...Expand for more
no match for the tile over cement floor. Boy did that hurt! Fast forward to my last job, I was the Deputy Director of Substance Abuse for the Department of Correction. I loved that job. I got to write (Policies, Procedures and Curriculum) for all the prisons and many of the jails. I still got to conduct all day seminars for law enforcement departments. I especially enjoyed going into a jail and telling the offenders what to expect when they got to "The Big House". They really looked forward to becoming convicts. When I finished telling them what to expect, for some reason they didn't want to come to my prison. You know, they really hated the idea that I thought I was going to cut their hair (a buzz job) as soon as they got their delousing shower. That usually was the last straw for them. I had already taken away their television, pictures of naked ladies and tattoo guns, now I thought I was going to cut off their hair that was down passed their waist. They were not happy with me. When I would run into them in the prison later I would say something like, "Well, I see you got one of my haircuts and you survived." They just did not appreciate my humor. I don't know why. You can see, I have changed a lot from the mousy girl I was in high school. I must admit that all of the awards I received could never top some of the letters I got from the offenders who successfully graduated from our programs. Especially the young man who ran up to me and gave me a big bear hug saying"Miss Sue, you told me I could do anything I wanted to do, and you were right! Now I work with children in Riley Hospital; my family is back together and I am happier than I ever thought would be possible. Thank you so much for believing in me. I give you credit in my AA meetings every time and I tell them they can do anything they want to do just like me." It is all worth it!
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