Ronnie O'donnell:
CLASS OF 1985
Grant Community High SchoolClass of 1985
Fox lake, IL
Western Illinois UniversityClass of 1989
Macomb, IL
Gavin South Junior High SchoolClass of 1981
Ingleside, IL
Gavin North Elementary SchoolClass of 1979
Lake villa, IL
Ronnie's Story
Life
I never expected to get married and have kids. I just wasn't focused in that area of my life. I was totally career oriented.
Then when I finally got my family in the same frame of mind - I met my husband. As it happens, our wedding was the night of the 15year get-together! One year after we got married I got pregnant. I had my first and only child at 34 1/2! Now I know why most people do this in their twenties!
I'm an Accounting Department Manager and love what I do.
School
I would not do High School again. It was tough enough the first time. I had some good friends that kept me sane and have reconnected to one of my best friends Julie (Makas)Petrangeli. She's my daughters'Godmother!
I was a major prude in HS which was part of the problem, but if you had ever met my mother - geeezzz!
College was 4hours away from her and all hell broke loose!
I had a couple crushes - but would never tell now!
Mr. Garlanger was the teacher who helped me the most. I am now an accountant because of his accounting class!
All my favorite memories are from after school hours.
One thing I'll never forget, however, was the nickname "Lucy" after I got a curly perm in Soph year.
College
College was FUN!!! I liked being able to start over. HS was not that great for me and I had a lot of disappointments and regrets from there. So I decided to take the bull by the horns and go all out! The only person who knew me on Campus was Matt Dabrowski and we were on separate sides of campus and had no classes together. So I was free!!
Since I was away from my parents, I could let it all hang out!
I pretty much became an alcoholic in my first 4 months of school and I wasn't even 18 yet! My first Christmas home my mom took care of that!
I auditioned and got into 3 music groups and won scholarships for my voice. I entered the Miss Macomb pagent 3 years to earn scholarship money and actually came in 2nd runner up one year. (Personally, I didn't ever want 1st place - too much pressure and lose a year of school to persue Miss Illinios/Miss America.)
I was engaged for several of my college years but ended the relationship my senior year. I had a 2 stalkers while I was there as well.
Spent my senior year partying and studying. My last semester was 22 hours long and I found out the night before the graduation ceremony that I was indeed graduating!!
I had Mono for the first 2 years of college!! The student health center kept misdiagnosing it!! Good news though - af...Expand for more
ter 2 years of aweful grades I won a scholarship because of the improvement of my grades from Soph to Junior year!! WHO KNEW!!
I loved college, but would have liked to have started out my way. My dad told me I was going to Western Ill Univ and I was studying Accounting. After 2 years of mono I was kicked out of the School of Business and had to find a new degree quick (I think I had 4 days!). So I have a music degree (what I really wanted anyway).
And wouldn't you know it - because I love $ I'm now an accountant!!
I have stayed in touch with 2 dorm-mates over the years and am Godmother to ones' daughter.
Workplace
I've had a lot good fortune in my career. I've been blessed with bosses who trusted me and saw my potential.
I got out of college with a Music Business degree and became a $15K/yr receptionist. But my boss saw much more and in 3 months had a promotion and $6K salary increase. I trained as her backup. I was asst. office mgr, asst. mis director, asst. controller. She taught me everything and had me fill in for anyone on vacation. (the business was a Swiss Manufacturer of Wire Cutting Machines) So I backed up everyone... Reception, Customer Service, Shipping/Rec, Inventory, Purchasing, AR - while still doing my job AP, Payroll and General Ledger. She left after 4 years and I took over 2 of her roles - MIS Director and Office Manager.
She got me my next employment opportunity. She was helping a Swiss Manufacturer of Wire Coiling Machinery set up a sales office here in the States. I did everything except Sales and Service (I had 2 guys for that). I was running my own business (so to speak) at 25.
I unloaded trucks, ship/rec, hr, ap, ar, po, inv. I had all the contacts for a foreign business, as well as, the business contacts you need here (accountant, banker, attorney). And with my true boss in Switzerland - yee haaa - it was my baby.
I left because Switzerland was going down and I couldn't close my baby. I decorated the office and everything else - I just couldn't close it too.
My next company was a computer services company. Basically the only good thing that came out of that was I met my husband there.
I'm now an Accounting Manager for a conglomerate of companies int he construction industry. I have 9 owners, 1 COO and 1 CFO to report to and have 6 employees who report to me. There are 9 Corporations and 6 partnerships with revenues totally over $110MM. My staff and I handle all accounting including union payroll for 450 employees.
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