Nine Lives

I may have finally found what I want to be when I grow up.

A clear passion for a profession was not in my purview, ever. Most of my high school friends knew what they were going to study at college, but I didn’t have a clue. Teaching wasn’t one of the career paths suggested by my college advisor, but social work was so I began years of psychology classes. I might have enjoyed social work as a job but I could not wrap my brain around statistics at all, so I graduated with a Liberal Arts degree. My electives were heavy with English classes so my major was English and my minor was Psychology.

A Liberal Arts degree includes the study of history, English, sociology, philosophy, psychology, and creative arts according to the University of Wyoming course catalog. “Studying liberal arts can equip you with a myriad of colors to paint with to create a vibrant career picture,” said Torian Parker, an instructional college advisor.

I took Ballet and piano every year but I wasn’t remarkable at either. I loved my scuba diving class but I didn’t have a goal of swimming in the coral reefs or working with Jacques Cousteau in my future. The best part of my platform diving class (for non sports majors) was practicing the flips on the trampoline, obviously, the Olympics weren’t the plan, I just wanted to learn something new. I waited for something to point me in the direction of my life’s path.

College ruined Shakespeare for me by analyzing every sonnet with its quatrains, couplet and iambic pentameter, obviously, a job as a college English professor was out. I wanted to take a pottery class but it wasn’t offered to a non Fine Arts major so I took a stenography class. I was fascinated with the foreign language of the shorthand symbols, they began to appear in my dreams at night so the next semester I signed up for an office machines class. For my typing final, my words per minute score was an acceptable 55, enough to secure a summer job as an executive secretary at a local real estate office. I was a successful secretary, good at filing, making coffee, typing, and answering the phone. I was offered the job full time in the fall but I declined, my boss was a little too “touchy-feely” to choose that career.

One summer was spent working the switchboard and front desk at a local hotel. I quickly discovered the monotony of that work, every shift was similar to the one before. My nightly dreams were peppered with stacks of invoices displaying the daily room rate of $35.95 stamped by the huge cash register. I did enjoy the credit card swiper and the guests. I read novels at every break sitting in the hotel coffee shop eating fried egg sandwiches and french fries, I had been starved reading only college textbooks all year.

It wasn’t until my first pregnancy at age nineteen, that I discovered what I could give 100% to. I read every book on pregnancy and childbirth in the university library. Childbirth and breastfeeding were tough the first time around but I became a pro at both by the time my fourth baby was born. I researched and bought the best children’s read-aloud books for every age. Goodnight Moon became a favorite. At age twenty-nine I had four beautiful children, two boys and two girls. All were extremely successful in school, sports, and with friends. My entire day was focused on them, I was a room mother and volunteer at their school. I would grocery shop with their favorite meals in mind, the same food that my parents would cook during my childhood. My favorite time of the day was bedtime, alone reading to each child, snuggling in their bed, reviewing their day. Being a mother is my favorite job and being a grandmother is the best job.

When my youngest was five and in kindergarten, I applied and was hired for two part-time jobs. I taught English as a Second Language and I worked at the local health department administering a drug prevention grant for elementary-aged children. Both jobs were wonderful. I chose to go full-time with the health department and worked there for several years.

After the health department, I worked as a preschool teacher and loved the creativity of that job. In the evening, I taught Ballet classes. My husband and father-in-law opened their restaurant, General Tanuki’s, and I became the “back office person,” once again a secretary who handled bank deposits, bill paying, and payroll. I was the hostess also. When our sushi chef resigned I took over that job, I had taken classes with a Master Sushi Chef while living in Honolulu. I became the pastry chef, making cheesecakes, crème brûlées, hot chocolate chip cookies, and our own version of molten chocolate cake (we called it petit gateau). I loved working with my family but restaurant work is stressful and backbreaking.

After closing General Tanuki’s I went back to teaching four-year-olds. I took classes and became an aromatherapist. For this part-time job, I measured and mixed five-gallon buckets of essential oils. The essential oils were the only good thing about the job, my boss was a lunatic.

This year I moved to a new school as a kindergarten teacher and have felt that this is definitely where I belong, I might excel at it.

An old interview with Kurt Vonnegut recently caught my eye and sort of validated my working life. When asked some “getting to know you questions” as a teenager, Vonnegut listed many of his favorite activities but said that he wasn’t good at any of them. The adult interviewer remarked, “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”

I don’t know if I’m an interesting person but I do know that I’m an interested person that’s why I keep trying new things.

Kate Emery General is a retired chef/restaurant owner born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. Kate loves her grandchildren, knitting, and watercolor painting. Kate and her husband, Matt are longtime residents of Cambridge’s West End where they enjoy swimming and bicycling.