Maggie Elizabeth Kennedy rode in a mule drawn wagon at the end of the nineteenth century from the sandhills of North Carolina to attend a training school for teachers in Columbia, South Carolina. Years later, while in her nineties, she often told the story of "The Little Match Girl" as I lay beside her, scared breathless for the little girl who would not survive the cold. Still, I listened, spellbound, to the sound of storytelling by a little lady from the country who had taught so many in her long life. It would have been altogether fitting for me to want to follow in the footsteps of my great grandmother and become an educator. However, I had no desire to be a teacher.

I wanted to be a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. Read on >>