Personal Canons - First Decade

This past Sunday I attended church. Although I cannot remember the last time I set foot in a church as I am not a religious person and did not grow up in a church, I try to maintain an open mind in all aspects of life and decided I could use some enlightenment in my life. The United Church of Gainesville is independent in spirit and congregational in organization, embodying a wide range of religious convictions and values the human diversity each individual brings including racial identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability and religious background. I found today's sermon incredibly thought provoking. As the minister spoke of her "personal canons" (which she described as "a standard, an established principle or belief") she recalled the significant events and life lessons she learned through each decade of her life that define the canons she lives by. As I sat through a fabulous rendition of "Amazing Grace" I began to ponder my own "personal canons"... Because I have only just completed the second decade of my life, I reflected on the canons of my first 20 years. My earliest memories were at the age of 3 when my life role was that of a little sister - a shadow to my talented "big sister" who, only 17-months older, seemed so smart and distinguished. From there, I became a college-bound 4-year-old in a hot pink convertible Barbie car. I had decided I wanted to attend university by watching my mom spend countless hours working on her master's thesis in neuropsychology; Kara and I spent countless hours poking the brain-in-a-bucket in our fridge, petting the test rats (which probably skewed the study results) in the laboratory and sitting through long collegiate lectures with the chickenpox. At age 6, I was a first grader who had an urgency to pee. Never learning how to ask to use the bathroom in French, I sat through everyday of kindergarten and first grade in my French-immersion school cross-legged and impatiently waiting for the bell to ring. In second grade, I made the first of many wrong decisions when Mom let me choose my own haircut and I looked like a boy ("Josh" as they called me) for a good two years of my life. My first insight into the medical field came when I was in 3rd grade and became ill with Scarlet Fever which put me out of school for about 3 weeks. Some of my proudest moments of fifth grade consisted of winning the D.A.R.E. jacket, becoming a Patrol, and perfectly executing the closing act of our 5th grade musical as a Pointer Sister! My first ten years left me a little girl with big dreams ready to take on the world...