A person is born "determined"
or not.
Maybe. I don't think I was born with a
strong will or a strong desire or a strong determination to do anything in
particular. As life went on, though, I can see that the strong determination to
do something did pop up on occasion. Otherwise, you might call me a
"floater," one who goes along with the flow unless something stops
me...or speeds me up.
As a public school student, I floated. I
liked good grades, but goodness me, I did not go out of my way to make them.
Courses were mainly easy with no huge obstacles to learn a subject.
I married, and it has turned out really
well. But I did not set out to marry--it just came along, and I lucked out and
got a really good man.
Babies just happened, too. My desire to
be a mother was nil, but when did get pregnant, I very soon turned out to be a
pretty good mother.
Mother bought a piano for me and my
sisters, but I was the only one who enjoyed the lessons. But was I determined
to be excellent or outstanding? Or did I ever have a great desire to be a
pianist? No. The piano was there, I took lessons, and I loved it so much I
practiced and played all the time, to the irritation of my sisters who wished
I'd "quit banging on that piano." I didn't call it banging--I was
playing and having the time of my life. It was fun.
During the Sixties, though, I became
restless, probably because the nation had become restless. Young men were
burning their draft cards, and women were burning their bras and going to
college. My bra wasn't big enough to make much of a flame, but a sudden urge to
go to college burned in my chest.
The problem was that we had two
pre-school children.
Without relating the boring details, I
did enroll, put our kids with a baby-sitter, and my husband worked two jobs so
I could do this. (He already had been in the Army and had also earned two
university degrees.)
Working for a degree beginning at age 27
became The Holy Grail. I had to have that degree, no matter what happened, and
believe me, with two young children, plenty did.
During those years, I worked so hard and
lost so much sleep, I literally became sick. I lost weight--way too
much--trying to be the best mommy I could be and the best wife, too.
But my main story is the Year of Physics.
Physics? Me? Heavens, how in the world
could I get through something so difficult?
During those years, education majors with
science as a teaching field at Texas Tech were thrown in with physics and
mathematics majors. Some of these young men aspired to go to the moon! This was
not fair, but I either had to pass or lose my degree. I could not graduate
without physics.
On the first lecture day, I climbed the
steps in the huge lecture hall and found an empty seat about one-fourth the way
up. As it happened, I sat next to a young pretty blond co-ed. We became
acquainted. She was an education major, too, and both of us had science as a
teaching field.
In walks the young professor,
swaggering, head up, swinging his arms, and threw his book bag on the table down
in front.
Really, he grinned and rubbed his hands,
he was so arrogant and confident.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he
began. "Today you will either learn what I teach and remain in the class,
or you will not understand, leave the hall, go to admin, and drop this
class."
I shook and almost cried, but I'm not a
cry-baby, so I waited.
He began and drew so many figures and
problems on the board I got dizzy. I tried to take notes, but there was no way,
because he talked and drew so fast.
After forty-five minutes, he stopped and
said.
"Now if you understood, remain. If
you did not, I invite you to leave now."
At least one third of the class left.
The young lady beside me grabbed my arm.
"I didn't understand," she wailed to me. "Did you?"
I told her, "No, I did not understand
one thing."
"Are you going to drop?"
"No, I have to have this course,
and if you do, too, then stay with me."
That girl and I got through physics.
A young man told me something
he'd heard:
"For the labs, write thick reports
with hand-drawn illustrations--in ink--you'll get an automatic A, and those
grades will be averaged with the lecture exams."
Determined? Oh, yes. But the labs just
stumped us. There was always some apparatus on each table we were to
manipulate. We had the outcome--we knew what was to happen in the end, so I
told this girl--let's work backwards, and we can write the equation and formula
backwards, then turn it around.
Voila!
Don't ask me details, but that's what we
did. Also, my written lab reports were about fifteen notebook sheets of paper,
complete with drawings and labeled illustrations I found in a physics book in the library. And with no errors.
I passed with a C and a B to go with all
my other grades--A's. And that C and B meant the world to me.
To this day, though, I don't know much
about physics.
Most of you know I'm now talking about
writing. Truthfully, I did not set out to become an author. I only wrote
stories for fun. After four completed manuscripts, I discovered electronic
publishers that did not want authors with agents, and I could submit
electronically. No paper submissions.
Yes, I became determined to get a
contract, but I did not go about the process willy-nilly.
First, in my newly found determination,
I made a list of about ten new electronic romance publishers I found the the RWA magazine.
At first, I didn't care what their
requirements were, I was interested in MY requirements:
~Nice covers without naked bodies
~A website that was inviting and easy to read
~A publisher that offered prints
~And an open invitation to submit, with
an exact list of the requirements
I chose five publishers for my first
submissions. One was The Wild Rose Press. I was offered a contract within three
weeks.
The rest is history.
But my determination now? I still have a
high level. Yes, I'm still just as determined as ever to write a good story,
submit it, get a contract, and have one more book published.
Of all the things I learned to do later
in life--learning to play golf and bridge--becoming an author with multiple
books is at the very top of my favorites list.
I'm as determined now as before, and I
will not stop until I become bored...or something else stops me.
Many things in life just ordinarily
happen, don't they?
But how many things happen completely
out of the blue, things so weird and different you wonder how you could
succeed?
I'm certain many of you out there can
identify. I'd love to hear your story.
Celia Yeary
Romance...and a little bit of Texas
