Saturday Story

What letter story will I tell today?  A, P & V are done, so that leaves another 23 letters to choose from!

Queen's Guide presentation.  How about the glasses!

Let's look at Q today.  What Q words can you think of?  Questions, quotes, qualifications, Queen, the Queen, Queen's Guide, qualities, quality time, Quality Street, quarantine, queue, quilt, quinquennial.

Isn't quinquennial a beautiful word?  I found it in the dictionary.  I didn't know there was such a word.  Apparently it means recurring every five years.   The only example I can find is from the Fixed Term Parliamentary Act in the UK that says that there should be a general election every 5 years.  Unless of course they call another one in between.   Sorry!  Off down a rabbit hole.  That's what comes of reading the dictionary!

Let's go back to my list and find some relevant stories.

I have lots of qualifications.  A teaching certificate, a B.A.(Hons) and a Masters degree (M.Ed). Sad to say that the degrees were about proving that I was capabale of getting them.  My grammar school teachers had said I wasn't good enough to go to University.  They also said that I shouldn't apply to a London Teacher Training College.  However I did ignore the last piece of advice and went to Southlands College in Wimbledon, London.  But after leaving college I got it into my head that I needed to prove myself.  This was before people talked about being 'enough' but I expect it is the same thing.  I did my first degree part time with the Open University and my masters part-time at Warwick University.  However I never told the school what I had done so I'm not sure what it proved and to whom.

Standing on a manhole cover to stop my heels sinking into the grass!

I also got photography qualifications and creative embroidery qualifications.  And at one point took the Mensa exam. And got in!

The day I received the letter telling me I had completed my masters degree my dad asked me when I was going to start my Ph.D.   And I took up the challenge and looked into doing a Ph.D in children's literature at Worcester University.   And then I came to my senses!

I didn't need to prove myself.  I didn't need more qualifications.  What I needed was just to be me.

But it's hard when you've always been performance driven.  I try now to be a 'being' not a 'doing'!

I expect there are other Q stories but I'll leave you with a quote from Charles Schultz:

'Don't worry about the world coming to an end today.  It's already tomorrow in Australia.'

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice